Connecting, Trusting, and Participating: The Direct and Interactive Effects of Social Associations NOJIN KWAK, UNIVERSIrT OF MICHIGAN DHIAVAN V SHAH, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON R. LANCE HOLBERT, UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE In recent years, research has come to recognize that nonpolitical associations have unintended but important consequences for citizens' participation in public affairs. Scholars theorize that these associational activities- embedded within social networks and sustained by confidence in the motives of others-encourage and facil- itate participation in civic life. This study tests and broadens these theses by (1) assessing the relative impact of different types of associational activities (i.e., informal socializing, public attendance, and religious partici- pation) and (2) examining interactive relationships between these activities and generalized interpersonal trust. Findings show that all of these associational activities significantly contribute to civic engagement. Further- more, all three interactions between the social associations and social trust are significant, indicating that those involved in associational activities are even more likely to become civic participants when they hold trusting attitudes toward others. Members of Florentine choral societies participate because they like to sing, not because their participation strengthens the Tuscan social fabric. But, it does. (Putnam 1993a: 38). S cholars from diverse disciplines have long emphasized the importance of engagement in public life-voting, volunteerism, involvement in community projects, and other such civic affiliations-for the health of democratic societies (Bellah et al. 1985; Tocqueville 1969/1835; Tonnies 1940; Wilson 2000). Accordingly, efforts have been made to identify factors that increase political participation and oth- erwise enhance civic engagement. Much of this research has relied on the explanatory power of individual-level differ- ences in socioeconomic status, political orientations, and psychological dispositions (for review, see Brady, Verba, and Schlozman 1995; Verba, Schlozman, and Brady 1995). This focus on micro-individual characteristics has had the unfortunate consequence of leaving the role of meso- social connections largely uncovered until recent years. Interest in the civic consequences of community context and associational network variables has grown markedly in the wake of Putnam's (1993b, 2000) reflections on Amer- ica's declining stock of social capital; much of the recent research confirms the longstanding contention of many the- orists that these linkages are critical for drawing people in civic life (Coleman 1990; Huckfeldt and Sprague 1995, La Due Lake and Huckfeldt 1998; Tonnies 1940, Verba et al. 1995). We acknowledge the importance of meso-social vari- ables as preconditions for civic mobilization, but further argue that these variables and micro-individual variables work in concert to foster civic engagement. In the present NOTE: The authors would like to thank DDB-Chicago for access to the Life Style Study, and Many Horn and Chris Callahan, in panicular, for making these data available and sharing methodological details. Political Research Quarterly: Vol. 57, No. 4 (December 2004): pp. 643-652 study, we focus on the interplay between interpersonal trust and various social associations. Our contention that social associations are significant conduits for civic participation is consistent with a perspec- tive that regards participation in civic life as a "by-product of activities engaged in for other purposes' (Coleman 1990: 312). Coleman's envisioning of social capital as an unin- tended consequence of other activities matches well with Putnam's (1993a) initial findings concerning civic participa- tion in Italian communities. Choral societies are not alone in their ability to strengthen community: various types of social affiliations-e.g., religious attendance, recreational and cultural activities, even informal social interactions- may be consequential for political participation, writ large, because they are settings for political discussion and mobi- lization (Putnam 1995a, 1995b) and resource- and commu- nity-building (Davidson and Cotter 1989; Verba et al. 1995). Moreover, networks of association, both formal and informal, may work with trust in others to further encour- age engagement in public life, for trusting attitudes ease sus- picion about the motives of others and reduce concerns about reciprocity, increasing the likelihood that social ties produce civic engagement (Fukuyama 1995). In sum, this research tests whether individuals' involve- ment in diverse social activities-ranging from religious attendance to informal socializing-contributes to partici- pation in volunteer activities and community projects. Fur- ther, we examine the interactive effects of social associa- tions with generalized trust, since one's sense of trust may influence reactions to mobilizing information, decisions about civic recruitment, and attachment to the community (Erickson and Nosanchuk 1990; Liu et al.1998). ASSOCIATIONAL MEMBERSHIP AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION Research contends that associational membership facili- tates individuals' involvement in public affairs (Flap 1999; 643