Role Trust: A Trust Strategy of Newcomers in the Cities

Over past 30 years China's urbanization has quickened. A large number of population have shift from rural to urban areas. During the process human relationships were reconstructed. Trust strategy was also changing from the special trust to the general trust with the increase in the time of staying in the cities. There is a transitional stage from special trust in traditional society to general trust in modern society. Role trust as a trust strategy was adopted in this stage by the newcomers. The strangers they meet were put on a category for the purpose of deciding if they would trust them.

The data of the research is from the Chinese Social Survey (CSS) of the Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a national random sample. The respondents were divided into five groups: peasants, floating people, migrant workers, internal migration and urban natives. The levels of general trust, special trust and the role trust were compared for different groups and impact factors to the strategy were analyzed.