Viking Colonization and Social Trust in Contemporary England

This article examines the long-run effects of Viking colonization in medieval England on contemporary levels of<br/>social trust. We contend that ancient clashes between Anglo-Saxons and Vikings fostered an environment of mistrust,<br/>a dynamic that set in motion a self-reinforcing cycle of low social trust persisting into the modern era. Employing<br/>a geographic regression discontinuity design, we compare areas within the Danelaw, where Viking settlements were<br/>concentrated, to adjacent areas that experienced little to no Viking influence. Our findings indicate that communities<br/>historically exposed to Viking colonization exhibit significantly lower levels of social trust today. We provide further<br/>evidence that higher violence and crime in exposed areas help explain persistently lower social trust. More broadly,<br/>our results show that even within a high-trust society, substantial local variation in social trust can endure, and that<br/>these differences can be traced back to historical experience.