Generalized Trust Shapes the Emotional Quality of Social Interactions with Strangers in One’s Community

Social interactions with strangers carry benefits for individual and community well-being. Whereas ample research has focused on social connection as vital to health, less has addressed communal and structural barriers that limit people’s ease of experiencing high-quality social interactions with unknown others in the community. In one correlational and two experimental studies (total N = 1,867), we test whether generalized trust shapes the positive emotional quality of community social interactions. We found generalized trust, whether reported or manipulated, predicts the positive emotional quality of interactions with strangers, but not close others. Additionally, when randomized to perceive one’s own community as high in economic inequality, people expected lower quality connection with a stranger later that day, an effect mediated by reduced generalized trust. These findings suggest that community contexts influence the quality of social interaction with strangers, which is critical for developing interventions and policy to improve individual and public health.