Abstract
Trust is an important psychological and social resource for interpersonal cooperation and societal functioning. However, measures commonly used to assess trust may capture related yet non-interchangeable constructs. Using an exploratory cross-sectional design, this study examined the response patterns, convergence and divergence, and selected demographic and regional correlates of multiple trust-related indicators in a large online sample of predominantly young Chinese adults. Participants were recruited through university networks and the questionnaire Star platform. After quality control, 5155 valid responses were included. The measures comprised a classic single-item generalized trust question, scales assessing general trust attitudes and dispositional trust, a self-reported measure of trust tendencies toward different social targets, and a hypothetical, non-incentivized trust-game scenario assessing investment choices, reciprocity expectations, and stated return decisions. In the classic trust question, 56.55% of participants indicated that most people in society could be trusted. Dispositional trust and general trust attitudes were above their respective scale midpoints with large effect sizes (Cohens d = 0.95 and 1.26), whereas self-reported interpersonal trust tendencies showed a small negative deviation from the corresponding midpoint (d = -0.17). All three hypothetical trust-game responses were statistically below the 50% response-range midpoint, although the deviations were trivial for investment choices (d = -0.09), modest for reciprocity expectations (d = -0.34), and small for stated return decisions (d = -0.15). General trust attitudes were strongly associated with dispositional trust (r = 0.853), and self-reported interpersonal trust tendencies were moderately associated with both measures. In contrast, generalized trust belief showed negligible associations with the hypothetical task responses (rs = 0.027-0.061). Regional indicators provided only small increments in explanatory power after selected demographic characteristics were controlled, and their associations varied across outcomes. The findings indicate that trust-related measures show partial convergence while capturing construct- and context-specific dimensions. Conclusions about general interpersonal trust therefore depend on the construct assessed, the target of trust, and the response context. These findings should be interpreted as measurement patterns within a predominantly young Chinese online sample rather than as a population estimate of trust in China.