Badger Institute exploring impact on neighborliness, civil society, government
Two-thirds of Americans under the age of 30 say they believe most people cannot be trusted, a dramatic generational shift, according to the results of a recent nationwide Marquette University Law School poll.
The November survey was the latest benchmark on a question the poll has been asking the last five years. General trust in others among Americans was down to 51 percent in 2025, a four percentage point decrease since 2021.
Pollster and Marquette University Law School professor Charles Franklin told the Badger Institute on Wednesday that these findings indicate a fairly even divide in American trust over the past five years.
“I think the striking finding is that trust in people is more or less evenly balanced,” he said via phone. “Fifty-three percent say most people can be trusted, 47 percent say most can’t be trusted, so it’s a pretty even split.”
Franklin said that the most interesting findings came when splitting respondents by age group. Those aged 18 to 29 led in distrustfulness at 66 percent, a figure which fell to 60 percent among those aged 30 to 44.
For those aged 45 to 59, only 45 percent said most people can’t be trusted. Just 25 percent of those aged 60 and up felt similar distrust, a stark difference between generations.
Trust within each such age cohort “has been quite stable since 2021,” Franklin wrote in a survey document.
While pollsters are continuing to search for potential explanations, Franklin said he believes the findings may be linked to a similar steady decline in trust in the government stemming from a period of political unrest in the 1960s.
“The overall drop is really striking, from 75 percent of people can be trusted among the folks born before 1960, to just 29 percent saying that among the people born in the 2000s,” Franklin said. “It’s a drop of well over 50 percent, and it’s so steady that it goes down with each succeeding decade.”
While these results seemingly point toward social media usage as a driving factor, Franklin said he was surprised to find that his data did not indicate that the internet played a substantial role.
“Part of this is it’s so easy to blame the internet for everything,” he said. “It’s so easy to point to social media as something that’s corrupting the minds of youth.”
While young respondents said they use the internet more often than those born in the 1960s, heavy internet usage across all age groups did not indicate a direct relationship to declining trust. Franklin said he could not identify a clear pattern to indicate heavy internet users are less trusting than those who use the internet less.
“Internet use is only weakly related to trust in others,” Franklin wrote. “Those constantly on the internet are the least trusting, 46 percent, but that is only modestly below the overall level of trust among all adults of 53 percent. Those online several times a day are more trusting than those who use the internet the least, daily or less.”
While internet use is not a direct indicator, Franklin suggested that culture created around social media communities may be a contributing factor. Pollsters, however, have little data to back up this theory, he said.
“Those most exposed to the culture would be the least trusting, but that’s just not the pattern we see here,” Franklin said. “As much as we all like to beat on the internet, maybe that’s not really what’s going on here.”
Samantha Rogaczewski, 24, told Badger Institute that she believes social media likely exacerbates pre-existing misunderstandings among young people, potentially leading to heightened mistrust. This, she suggested, could potentially bleed into interactions in life beyond the screens.
“There’s a lot of people not being truthful online through online dating, online friends, all the face filters,” she said. “People, I think, have a general lens of distrust and skepticism whenever they see anything online.”
Rogaczewski, who works as a paralegal in Wyoming, said she often encounters polarizing and emotionally charged content while using the internet, which can become troubling.
“People are so anxious these days because they’re flooded with a bunch of news, and a lot of it is negative because that’s what gets attention,” she said. “I think that’s what contributes to that lack of trust.”
Franklin said his findings would likely manifest themselves in our interactions with one another. If more people are distrustful of one another, it may take longer to form genuine relationships, he said.
“It means that with younger generations today, trust is something that maybe needs to be earned more by other people rather than just presumed to be the case,” he said.
The findings coincide with data from Pew Research released last week, which showed trust in others is generally higher in wealthier nations. Sweden led with only 17 percent distrustfulness, while the United States came in 10th with 44 percent distrustfulness.
Pew data from May also showed Americans’ trust in one another is linked to education and economic status. Those with lower income and less education proved less trusting than those with more income and schooling.
People in Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan generally proved less trusting than those in Minnesota, South Dakota and Nebraska, Pew found.
Those with higher trust said they would be more likely to help neighbors with simple tasks such as bringing in their mail or watering plants while they are away. Trusters also said they would be more likely to bring a meal to a sick friend or lend them money.
Despite this, even trusting respondents said they rarely leave their homes unlocked or items unattended in public.
Jackson Walker is a native Wisconsinite and 2023 UW-Madison graduate. See next week’s Top Picks for his story on distrust and government.
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