A society is high-trust if citizens’ and organizations’ behavior towards each other is predictable. In such a society, actors follow broadly understood norms of behavior, supported by the rule of law. This is fundamental to the accumulation of social capital and economic growth.
Citizens in a low-trust society are challenged by divergent or opaque behavioral norms. This makes behavior of others unpredictable, impairing social capital and economic activity. These societies may experience high levels of corruption and inequality.
please remember that “high-trust” does not mean “trad”.
I…don’t think these definitions work.
You can have a low-trust society that’s extremely predictable if the predictable thing is untrustworthiness. In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s how all the archetypical examples work. If it’s 100% always true that people care only about their kinfolk, and always treat everyone else as either a victim to be exploited or a threat to be managed, then you have zero cooperation and zero trust – and perfect reliability.