Relationship Between Social Networks and Institutional Trust; Case Study: Shiraz University Students

The main question of this research is, what is the relationship between trust to cyber social networks and social trust factors and institutional trust among students? The main hypothesis is that trust on social networks (facebook, twitter and etc) has meaningful impact on factors of social trust (family and religious & national identity) and institutional trust in two levels of government and civil institutions. The overall finding of this study shows that in the form of structural equations, 38% of the dependent variable,means institutional trust, was determined by independent variables, means trust in the social network and the mediating variables of social factors (family, national identity, and religious identity).Trust in social networks has a 26% negative effect on social factors of trust specially national identity, and this decrease in social trust also reduces institutional trust specially in governmental- sovereignty level. Among the components of social factors, national identity has the most negative impact on social networks with 23%; among institutional components, trust in political institutions indirectly has the highest negative impact on 14% of social networks, ultimately the main hypothesis of this research is proved.