Trust in Denmark

What is it about the Danes that they trust each other so much?

We stayed at a hotel in Copenhagen that also offered meals at its in-house restaurant.  When we ate it was a delicious all-you-can-eat serve-yourself organic and very tasty situation.  The only thing missing was a waiter with a bill or someone asking for our room number at each meal.  When we checked out several days later the receptionist just asked us how many meals we ate, if we used anything from the bar in the room, and sent us on our merry way.  The hotel restaurant wasn’t cheap (as seems to be the custom in many restaurants in Copenhagen); breakfast was $30 each and dinner was north of $50 a person.  So, they stood to lose substantial revenue if their guests were less than forthcoming about what and when they ate.  I suppose this could be expected in a small town where everyone knows everyone, but we were in the middle of a major European city with 2 million + people, and on a street that until recently was best known for its hectic drug trade and brothels.

Later on the island of Samso we ran across a produce stand, almost fully stocked, and no produce stand owner in sight.  I watched as a guy on a moped drove up, selected some carrots and onions, put some money in a jar, and drove off.  It was totally based on the honor system.

Most of the museums we visited had coatrooms without a coat-checker -- you just hung up your jacket on a hanger by the door along with 20, 30, or 100 others and grabbed it on your way out.  The thousands of bicycles in Copenhagen were locked up, but very few used more than a simple mechanism that prevented the rear wheel from rotating.  If someone wanted they could just roll the bike away on its front wheel or pick it up and leave.

Several of the Danes that we spent time with mentioned the trust they have in their government -- education and basic health care are run by the state and paid for with taxes, and many consider the government a parental figure with their best interest in mind (although this may change with the introduction of private health care add-ons and fee-based high school programs).  In addition, we’ve seen much less of a social and economic stratification than in other countries -- many Danes seem to recognize that they have much more in common with each other than they have differences.  Perhaps a sense of empathy means that they trust each other with their well.