Date of Award

Spring 5-22-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Sociology

First Advisor

Andrew Lindner

Abstract

Is trust in the institution of medicine dependent on race? Are there racial differences in change of trust over time? The central hypotheses of this study are that a) white people will exhibit more trust in medicine than Black people, and b) white people’s trust in medicine will increase over time, while Black people’s trust in medicine will decrease over time. This study analyzes 2000-2018 data from the General Social Survey, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago; the data has been narrowed down to include only Black and white participants in the analysis. Findings do not support the two hypotheses, showing marginally greater trust among Black participants and an increase in trust over time for both white and Black participants, the increase among Black participants of a greater magnitude. This increase in trust in medicine should not be equated with a lack of disparity, for these results suggest that more research needs to be conducted to examine the factors and possible causal mechanisms behind this increasing trust in medicine among both Black and white people.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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