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European Sociological Review Advance Access originally published online on January 17, 2009
European Sociological Review 2009 25(6):709-721; doi:10.1093/esr/jcn078
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Learning to Trust: Networks Effects Through Time

Davide Barrera and Gerhard G. van de Bunt

Correspondence: Davide Barrera (to whom correspondence should be addressed), Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology/Department of Sociology, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands. Email: d.barrera{at}uu.nl

Correspondence: Gerhard G. Van de Bunt, Department of Social Research Methodology, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

This article investigates the effects of information originating from social networks on the development of interpersonal trust relations in the context of a dialysis department of a Dutch medium-sized hospital. Hypotheses on learning effects are developed from existing theories and tested using longitudinal data concerning the complete networks of trust and (informal) communication relations among employees observed at four different time points. The results support the existence of a learning mechanism operating both within dyads and through the social networks in which the dyads are embedded: actors learn to trust (or distrust) each other from their own past experience as well as from information that they receive from colleagues with whom they have regular communication.

Manuscript received: June 1, 2008.


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