Replication Data for: Neither religious nor rational: Heterodoxy and institutional trust

According to the optimistic reading of the trust deficit in contemporary democracies, an increasingly non-religious and presumably more rational citizenry is naturally inclined to distrust public institutions. This modern shift is viewed as a positive check that can supposedly improve representative government. The present article proposes a more nuanced understanding of the influence of supernatural beliefs on institutional trust. Specifically, the article moves beyond the popular analytical dichotomy between the religious and the non-religious by separating the non-religious into a non-believer segment and a segment hitherto overlooked by studies of political trust: unconventional or heterodox believers (e.g., in astrology, lucky charms, divination and faith healing, but not in conventional religion). Using comparative data from the International Social Survey Programme, the study finds that heterodox believers, similarly to non-believers, tend to distrust institutions, albeit for very different reasons. The previously ignored role of heterodox beliefs points to grave implications regarding the current trust deficit.针对当代民主国家信任赤字的乐观解读视角认为，日趋世俗化且据信更具理性的公民全体，天然倾向于不信任公共机构。这一现代转向被视作一种积极的制衡力量，据称能够优化代议制政府治理。本文针对超自然信仰对制度信任的影响提出了更为细致入微的解读视角。具体而言，本文跳出了宗教群体与非宗教群体这一主流分析二分框架，将非宗教群体进一步划分为无信仰群体，以及迄今为政治信任研究所忽视的一类群体：非正统（异端）信仰群体（例如信奉占星术、幸运符、占卜与信仰疗法，但不信传统宗教的群体）。借助国际社会调查项目（International Social Survey Programme）的比较数据，本研究发现，非正统信仰群体与无信仰群体同样倾向于不信任公共制度，尽管二者的不信任动因截然不同。这一被既往研究忽略的异端信仰的作用，凸显了当前信任赤字问题所蕴含的严峻影响。