数字时代的普遍信任:数字拓展与零工侵蚀效应

Generalized Trust in the Digital Age:The Effects of Digital Job Expansion and Gig-Work Erosion

数字时代的就业者日益显现出数字化和零工化的工作特征,这将对其普遍信任产生何种影响?通过分析2017年中国综合社会调查数据,本文提供了两项研究发现。第一,从事数字化工作对就业者具有直接和间接的信任拓展效应,可通过资源助力和交往拓展提升其普遍信任。工作中涉及互联网使用的就业者会呈现更高的普遍信任,且工作交往网络的拓展在这一过程中具有部分中介作用。第二,从事零工化工作带来就业者组织承诺的松解和工作交往的浅层嵌入,对其形成普遍且有所区别的信任侵蚀效应。无固定雇主和雇佣合同的就业者会呈现更低的普遍信任,且这一负面影响在低收入的就业者中更为明显。作为中国式现代化重要的制度变迁过程,数字时代的到来在重塑劳动力市场的同时,也蕴含着普遍信任的变迁动能。

With the arrival of the digital age, the characteristics of digitalization and gig work are becoming increasingly apparent to employees. What impact will this have on their overall trust? Analysis of the 2017 Chinese General Social Survey(CGSS) shows two sets of empirical findings. First, the digitization of work has direct and indirect effects on generalized trust expansion, as resources and social connections help increase the generalized trust of employees. Employees who use the Internet for work have higher levels of generalized trust, and the expansion of their work communication networks plays a partial mediating role in this process. Second, gig work leads to a weakening of organizational commitment and shallowly embedded work communications, resulting in a general and distinctive erosion of trust. Employees without a fixed employer or employment contract have lower levels of generalized trust, and this negative impact is more pronounced among low-income employees.As an important process of Chinese path to modernization, the advent of the digital age reshapes the labor market and contains the driving force for the transformation of generalized trust.