Survey shows people lack trust in each other

BEIJING- About 87 percent of the respondents to a recent survey said the reason they are unlikely to help an old person who has fallen in the street is that they want to avoid being blamed for the accident.

The survey, which asked mainlanders about trust, was conducted by the Renmin University of China, the Capital University of Economics and Business and the Central University of Finance and Economics. During September and October, it was presented to about 5,000 respondents who were asked what they thought about the safety of food in China and about their attitudes toward social issues that have recently given rise to much debate.

"We are putting this survey out regularly to see how the public reacts to social troubles," said Wu Yilin, a statistics researcher at the People's University of China. "The hottest discussion in the past few months has been about trust."