What Breeds Trust? A Multilevel Analysis of Relationship Between Attitudes Towards Religion Science, AI Innovation, and Generalized Trust

We live in a world of rapidly developing technologies that in the near future may change our understanding of the world, the possibilities of interacting with it, as well as transform other social, psychological and cognitive reality. It is not unreasonable that modern technological development should lead to the growth and improvement of our lives and society as a whole, increasing the level of generalized trust. However, modern technological discoveries, and especially artificial intelligence, are no longer just technological products and mechanisms. The complexity and novelty of technological innovations implies a lack of in-depth and proven knowledge about them. Thus, such rapid development can lead to serious negative changes in the lifestyle, social norms and ethical considerations of society. Potentially, it will definitely be related to how much we trust the world around us. The purpose of this work is to study the relationship between how religiosity and scientific views of a person relate to the level of generalized trust, as well as how the digital development of a country and the attitude towards innovation in general increase or decrease the generalized individual level of trust. We also expect contextual-level predictors to explain in more detail the relationship between individual-level predictors and generalized trust. For this purpose, a multilevel regression based on data from 24 countries around the world was used. We found that religious people are more likely to have a higher level of trust than adherents of the scientific and technological paradigm. In addition, the context of a country's digital development and its attitude to innovative technologies are completely differently related to the level of generalized trust. While a more digitally developed environment will be associated with an increase in the level of general trust, a more positive attitude of the country towards innovation and its implementation will be associated with a decrease in the level of general trust. We assume that innovative technologies and products such as artificial intelligence and robotics, although open up opportunities to increase efficiency and productivity in any applied industry in the long term, can lead to a number of problems in the initial stages. Legal, institutional and infrastructural regulation in the introduction of innovations into society is an obligatory basis for the favorable development of this technology, as well as for the opportunity to use it without worrying about many problems inherent in high-tech products. Only such an environment can contribute to an increase in the level of individual generalized trust.