Article Growing to Trust: Evidence That Trust Increases and Sustains Well-Being Across the Life Span

Across the globe, populations are aging, which presents an unprecedented challenge to individual and societal well-being.We seek to (a) replicate and extend previous work on age-related differences in interpersonal trust and (b) examine associations between trust and well-being across the adult life span. Study 1, a cross-sectional study of 197,888 individuals (aged 14–99) from 83 countries assessed between 1981 and 2007, showed that (a) older versus younger adults showed higher interpersonal trust and (b) higher trust predicted higher well-being, especially for older adults. Study 2, a nationally representative three-wave cohort-sequential longitudinal study (spanning 4 years) of 1,230 individuals in the United States (aged 18–89), showed that (a) interpersonal trust increased longitudinally across age groups and (b) higher trust predicted increases in well-being longitudinally and vice versa. These findings suggest that interpersonal trust may be an important resource for successful development across the life span. Keywords age, trust, well-being, social development Across the globe, birth rates are declining and life expectancies are increasing. In the United States, over the next two decades alone, the proportion of people over age 65 is predicted to increase from 12.4 % to 19 % (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration on Aging, 2012). This ‘‘gray-ing’ ’ of populations worldwide presents an unprecedented chal-lenge to individuals and societies alike, since as individuals grow older, they experience changes in many domains of func-tioning that are relevant for well-being. Many changes can be considered losses, including losses in cognitive abilities (e.g., Verhaeghen & Salthouse, 1997) and physical health (Rowe & Kahn, 1997). However, pioneering life span developmental theories predict that some age-related changes may actually represent gains in functioning, including increases in prosocial-ity (Carstensen, Isaacowitz, & Charles, 1999) and generativity (Erikson, 1968). Numerous empirical studies have demon-strated such age-related gains for agreeableness (Roberts, Walton, & Viechtbauer, 2006), ego-transcending goal