Egalitarianism, I’d say (which probably is correlated with trust). In Sweden the switch from the plural (“ni”) to the singular (“du”) form of you was done quite deliberately, as described in this article:
“The beginning of the du-reformen is associated with Bror Rexed, the then head of the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen), who in his welcome speech to the staff in 1967 announced that he would address everyone as du, increasing the effects of the reform and bringing it to a more frequent use. The actual reform had started earlier, including the amended language in the major newspaper Dagens Nyheter. It was seen as a reform in a democratic and egalitarian direction.
First, authorities and influential circles tried rehabilitating the Ni in a so-called ni-reform, but most people could not bring themselves to feel civil using that. Then, almost overnight and dubbed the “du reform”, the system broke down and du (noted as informal above) became the accepted way of addressing any one person except royalty.”
Egalitarianism, I’d say (which probably is correlated with trust). In Sweden the switch from the plural (“ni”) to the singular (“du”) form of you was done quite deliberately, as described in this article:
“The beginning of the du-reformen is associated with Bror Rexed, the then head of the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen), who in his welcome speech to the staff in 1967 announced that he would address everyone as du, increasing the effects of the reform and bringing it to a more frequent use. The actual reform had started earlier, including the amended language in the major newspaper Dagens Nyheter. It was seen as a reform in a democratic and egalitarian direction.
First, authorities and influential circles tried rehabilitating the Ni in a so-called ni-reform, but most people could not bring themselves to feel civil using that. Then, almost overnight and dubbed the “du reform”, the system broke down and du (noted as informal above) became the accepted way of addressing any one person except royalty.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du-reformen