Trust matters. People who trust others have an expansive view of their community and this helps connect them to people who are different from themselves. It also leads people to seek common ground when they disagree on solutions to public issues. In this chapter, I trace the benefits of trust both for individuals and the society. I also examine how some of the gains from trust, both public and private, have become more scarce as trust has fallen. In the next chapter, I extend this examination to look at the sources of trust and its impact cross-nationally.

Trust is not an all-purpose solution to society's problems. It won't get people involved in civic groups or in political life. But it does have other, perhaps even more important consequences. Because trust links us to people who are different from ourselves, it makes cooperation and compromise easier.