Abstract
This paper examines the association between personality traits and trust. In this paper, trust is divided into two types: interpersonal and institutional. Both are fundamental for cohesion, reduction of social fragmentation, effective governance and institutional legitimacy. The literature primarily identifies personal experience and anticipated adherence to norms as key drivers of trust. In this context, understanding whether and how personality influences trust is crucial, as trust may be partially hereditary and thus only partly shaped by behaviour. This suggests that some population segments may remain distrustful, regardless of the efforts to build trustworthiness. Hence, this paper examines the effect of personality on trust in diverse entities. Personality traits are operationalised through the Big Five personality model. Effect of personality on both types of trust, i.e. institutional and interpersonal, is measured. For both types, subcategories of trustees are examined; for instance, friends and family are included in interpersonal trust subcategories. This paper focuses on the Slovak population and uses data from the World Values Survey. The results show that conscientiousness, openness and agreeableness are positively related to trust in certain institutions. On the other hand, interpersonal trust was positively related only to openness and agreeableness. Neuroticism has been negatively associated with both institutional and interpersonal trust.