Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
One Woodrow Wilson Plaza, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20004-3027
T 202/691-4000
Good Vibrations
THE SOURCE: “Effects of Internet Commerce on Social Trust” by Diana C. Mutz, in Public Opinion Quarterly, Fall 2009.
Hardly a day goes by without some headline declaring a new ill the Internet is visiting upon society. Oneoft-heard lament: Local shopkeepers are losing business to online retailers, and as a result, small interactions that once strengthened the social fabric of a neighborhood or town are no more. Is the Internet eroding the connections that keep societytogether?
Not at all, writes Diana C. Mutz, a political scientist at the University of Pennsylvania.Face-to-face interactions may be on the wane, but positive e-commerce experiences (and 80 percent of those who have purchased online characterize their experience positively) tend to boost a generalized sense of faith in other people, particularlystrangers.
To read the rest of this article, please consider becoming a WQ subscriber, which allows online access to the current WQ issue as well as archive content. Other access options are below.
Research, browse, and discover more than 35 years of articles, essays, and reviews by preeminent scholars and writers. Our searchable archive of back issues is free for WQ subscribers.
 |
 |
 |
Subscribe today
to the WQ Online
and receive immediate access
to the WQ archive for a full year.
Subscribe Now
Don't Cry for Eyak
THE SOURCE: “The Cosmopolitan Tongue: The Universality of English” by John McWhorter, in World Affairs Journal, Fall 2009.Crime's Great Convergence
THE SOURCE: “Crime and U.S. Cities: Recent Patterns and Implications” by Ingrid Gould Ellen and Katherine O’Regan, in The Annals of the AmericanThe Annals of the Academy of Political and Social Science, Nov. 2009.