Trust is a field of research in social sciences that has complex, well-developed theoretical
approaches, but its empirical tools are less precisely grounded. The most common survey tool
for measuring generalized trust is a formula often referred to in the literature as “standard”
trust question, which reads as follows: “Generally speaking, would you say that most people can
be trusted or that you need to be very careful in dealing with people?” The aim of the paper is to
examine this standard survey item along the dimensions of reliability and validity. In our analysis,
we use Hungarian data obtained from various international surveys. Our results indicate serious
validity problems, as the standard question shows only weak linkage with additional variables,
which, based on the conceptual background, should be in a close relationship with trust.
KEYWORDS: trust, generalized trust, survey methods, reliability, validity