Violent conflict and parochial trust: Lab-in-the-field and survey evidence

How does conflict exposure affect trust? We hypothesize that direct (first-hand) experience with conflict induces parochialism : trust towards out-groups worsens, but trust towards in-groups, owing to positive experiences of kin solidarity, may improve. Indirect exposure to conflict through third-party accounts, on the other hand, reduces trust toward everyone, arguably owing to negativity bias. We find consistent support for our hypotheses in a lab-in-the-field experiment in Maluku, Indonesia, which witnessed a salient Christian-Muslim conflict during 1999-2002, as well as in three cross-country datasets exploiting temporal and spatial variation in exposure to violence. Our results help resolve a seeming contradiction in the literature and inform policies on resolving conflicts. F0B7Examine how direct and indirect conflict exposure influence in-group and out-group trust. F0B7Direct exposure fosters in-group trust while eroding out-group trust, revealing parochial trust. F0B7Indirect conflict exposure reduces trust in all groups due to predominance of negative narratives. F0B7Combine lab-in-the-field experiment in Maluku, Indonesia, with large-scale survey datasets (Asia, Africa, Global). F0B7Findings inform strategies for reconciliation and trust-building in post-conflict societies.