The Relationship Between Trust and Well-Being: A Meta-Analysis

An increasing number of studies emphasize that trust is most relevant to well-being. However, the results of this relationship remain inconclusive. This meta-analysis aims to synthesize the evidence on the association between trust and individual well-being. We searched several electronic databases to identify relevant studies published before September 30, 2022. Studies were included if they reported a Pearson’s correlation coefficient between trust and well-being. And a random-effects model was used. We identified 132 primary studies with a total of 1,060,174 participants. The results provided a moderate correlation between trust and well-being (ρ = 0.255) with 95% CI = [.240, .269]. Furthermore, we explored different trust types, well-being types, individualism, age, and gender as moderators. The results showed that the well-being types moderated the relationship between trust and well-being. Specifically, the strongest is social well-being, while the weakest is physical well-being. Trust types and individualism did not moderate the link between trust and well-being, whereas age and gender did. This study provides the evidence that trust plays an important role in promoting well-being.