Jag har tidigare skrivit om kommunismens negativa effekter på människors liv (se t.ex. här och här). Nu undersöker en ny studie, ”Political Movement and Trust Formation: Evidence from the Cultural Revolution (1966-76)”, hur Kinas kulturrevolution påverkade en av de mest värdefulla mänskliga egenskaperna: tillit till människor i allmänhet. Resultat:

Our findings indicate that individuals in counties with higher revolutionary intensity and of trust formation cohorts report significantly lower levels of trust more than three decades later. This effect is more pronounced for those more likely to have been targeted during the revolution as well as those with greater exposure to its early years (1966-71).

De mänskliga kostnaderna av stridbara former av kommunism är stora.