Generalized trust and attitudes toward immigrants in East Asia: A cross-national comparative study

Generalized trust has been widely discussed as a non-economic determinant influencing public attitudes toward immigrants among natives in Europe. However, associations between generalized trust and public opinions on immigrants remain underexplored in East Asia. This study investigates the association between generalized trust among natives and their attitudes toward immigrants, considering the interaction between generalized trust and country. Utilizing data from the 7th wave of the World Values Survey dataset for three East Asian countries—South Korea, China, and Japan—we fitted two mixed multilevel logistic regression models for two dependent variables in two scenarios: opposition to immigrants as neighbors, and prioritizing nationals in economic adversity. Results reveal that generalized trust was negatively related to natives' reluctance to accept immigrants as neighbors. However, the association was only marginally significant when examining support for in-group favoritism in economic adversity. The impact of generalized trust on these attitudes also exhibited variations by country. Notably, we found a negative association between generalized trust and opposing immigrants as neighbors in China and Japan, while this may not be the case for Korea.