Princeton University has established a research center to find the causes of international mistrust, President Harold Dodds announced yesterday. The unit, which will be called the Research Center for the Study of World Institutions, will consider problems such as the antagonism between democratic and non-democratic values, the obstacles which hinder work in the U. N., and the common mistrust of foreign ideas and people.

This center compares to the Research Center in Altruistic Integration and Creativity set up here in February 1949 under Pitrim A. Sorokin, Professor of Sociology, to study altruism in human behavior.

When asked to comment last night, Sorokin said the Princeton center's approach to the problem is more limited. "The institutional aspect of international peace is only one of the parts," he said.

Sorokin added that the outlook for the establishment of more centers for the promotion of international understanding is good since Columbia and the Universities of Oslo and Vienna are planning similar programs.