[x]

I don’t think people were more trustworthy in 1972. That was the era of Richard J Dailey, Serpico and Watergate, just to name some very high profile corruption. You’re also talking the height of the Weather Underground, the Black Panthers and a few other nuts. Really everything you’re saying is terrible now was just as much if not more so then.

Kind of. 1962 would have been a better benchmark. In 1972 people were deathly afraid of rioters, hippies, druggies, hitchhikers, and killers who picked up hitchhikers.

The people who took a survey in 1972 probably would have grown up in a less stressful era, though, and might have kept some of their trustworthy nature over the years.

[discostu]

They were probably more in denial, and less addicted to paranoia. One of the interesting side effects of the information age is that no news is local, we get to find out about tons of bad things happening that we never would have before (because it happened 3 states and really isn’t that interesting) and get all worked up over it. Back when news was half an hour of local, half and hour of national and maybe you skimmed the paper you just didn’t find out about as many carjackings and knockouts and faked rude tips.