The Impact of Age and Education on Political Trust
Can you imagine that the seniors who constantly criticize policies and complain about political parties actually trust politics deeply?
Research shows that older adults are generally more willing than younger people to trust the government, exhibiting higher levels of political trust. From a conservative perspective, this is because older people tend to preserve the status quo and therefore support the current governance system. In East Asian societies, scholars often link this phenomenon to historical authoritarianism and Confucian culture. On the other hand, critical perspectives remind us that higher political trust may also mean a lack of questioning of institutions. Thus, in developed countries, those with higher education often demonstrate lower political trust.
Based on data from the Asian Barometer Survey, Anli Jiang and colleagues found that:
❗ Groups with more years of education show lower overall levels of trust compared to those with fewer years of education.
❗ Regardless of education level, political trust ultimately increases with age.
❗ For those with higher education, the upward trend in trust does not appear until middle age or later.
The study further explains that older adults’ political trust is not tied to their approval or disapproval of specific parties or policies, but rather to their confidence in public institutions such as the legislature, judiciary, military, and police to function properly and maintain social order. Even among the highly educated, as they enter old age, they gradually place this trust in the system itself.
In other words, it is precisely because the elderly believe the existing political system is worth relying on that they “💔 love deeply, and therefore criticize harshly 👹.
Original links：Radicalizing and Conservatizing: Ageing Effects on Political Trust in Asia, 2001–2016
