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Trust in government regarding COVID-19 and its associations with preventive health behaviour and prosocial behaviour during the pandemic: A cross-sectional and longitudinal study
Abstract and Figures
Background
The effective implementation of government policies and measures for controlling the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic requires compliance from the public. This study aimed to examine cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of trust in government regarding COVID-19 control with the adoption of recommended health behaviours and prosocial behaviours, and potential determinants of trust in government during the pandemic.
Methods
This study analysed data from the PsyCorona Survey, an international project on COVID-19 that included 23 733 participants from 23 countries (representative in age and gender distributions by country) at baseline survey and 7785 participants who also completed follow-up surveys. Specification curve analysis was used to examine concurrent associations between trust in government and self-reported behaviours. We further used structural equation model to explore potential determinants of trust in government. Multilevel linear regressions were used to examine associations between baseline trust and longitudinal behavioural changes.
Results
Higher trust in government regarding COVID-19 control was significantly associated with higher adoption of health behaviours (handwashing, avoiding crowded space, self-quarantine) and prosocial behaviours in specification curve analyses (median standardised β = 0.173 and 0.229, p < 0.001). Government perceived as well organised, disseminating clear messages and knowledge on COVID-19, and perceived fairness were positively associated with trust in government (standardised β = 0.358, 0.230, 0.056, and 0.249, p < 0.01). Higher trust at baseline survey was significantly associated with lower rate of decline in health behaviours over time ( p for interaction = 0.001).
Conclusions
These results highlighted the importance of trust in government in the control of COVID-19.
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... In public health literature, collaborations outward, including other governments and non-governmental stakeholders could make substantive impacts on policy outcomes and public health delivery [96]. It is indicated in survey which demonstrated a positive association between managerial collaborations and public health Collaboration [97]. Other scholars also observe a similar pattern in the realm of health and community services [98]. ...
Background: This research depicts the linkage of public leadership on public health delivery (PHD) and collaborative administration. The research is also focused to examine the effect of public leadership on public health delivery through the intervening variable of collaborative administration by using both social information processing theory and collaboration theory.
Methods: This research is based on quantitative method. Data was collected from 464 public hospital administration in the context of Pakistan. This study evaluated data using SPSS, AMOS and PROCESS Macro.
Results: Public leadership has a positive profound effect on public health delivery and collaborative administration, and that collaborative administration significantly promotes public health delivery. The outcomes also exposed that public leadership has substantial influence on public health delivery through intervening collaborative administration.
Conclusions: Whilst public leadership demonstrated positive outcomes on public health delivery and collaborative administration, there is a need for more rigor studies on collaborative governance leadership, collaborative ethics and collaborative norms in the public health service.
... Badman et al. demonstrated that trust in institutions and not in political leaders determined compliance in COVID-19 prevention measures in 12 different countries (29). Similarly, the results of a cross-sectional (on 23 countries) and longitudinal study conducted by Han et al. highlighted how higher trust in government was significantly associated with higher adoption of health behaviours and prosocial behaviours (30). ...
Background and aim:
as a reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries all over the world have undertaken wide-scale measures to prevent and limit the spread of the virus. Suggested preventative measures mainly included "lockdown", social distancing, wearing facemasks, and vaccinations. The success of these measures was widely dependent on the cooperation of citizens. However, people reacted differently to the several types of restrictions and recommendations. Even if the majority followed the rules, others ignored them. This study aims to investigate the reasons for the compliance or violation of the rules developed to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.
Methods:
to answer the research question, the analysis of two different surveys conducted on a representative sample of Italians (N=2000) were conducted and analysed through descriptive statistics.
Results:
the data collection agreed with published literature. Compliance with rules during emergencies followed diligence and altruistic patterns. Fear of sanctions did not seem to work in relation to rules compliance during emergency situations. The lack of clarity of regulations in terms of complexity or constant changes led to non-compliance even intervening as a neutralization technique.
Conclusions:
government's fear-based interventions did not seem to work since Italians tended to adhere to the rules primarily out of respect for legitimate authority. Future research should focus more on the topic of trust in institutions in emergency situations with the aim of highlighting the key points for successful governance, also in terms of rules compliance.
... Trust refers to a person's dependence on and feeling of security in relation to someone or something else [58], as well as confidence in their expectations of the other party. When people have confidence and satisfaction in the performance of their government, they will show trust in the government [59], and their behaviours will more closely follow governmental policies, regulations and instructions [60]. Wong and Jensen [61] found that governments attach importance to public trust in risk management. ...
To identify the mechanisms by which perceived scarcity affects consumers' panic-buying behaviours and to explore the underlying reasons for panic-buying. Building on signalling theory and scarcity theory, we constructed a model of panic-buying behaviour. In total, 361 sources of valid data were collected via online questionnaires, and partial least squares structural equation modelling was employed for the empirical analysis. In the context of COVID-19, perceived scarcity significantly and positively influenced the macro signals, for example, by impacting perceived value and perceived competitiveness. Furthermore, perceived scarcity significantly affected consumers' micro signals, such as their perceived anxiety and perceived uncertainty. In combination, perceived value, perceived competitiveness, perceived anxiety and perceived uncertainty significantly and positively influenced consumers' panic-buying behaviours. Trust in the government also played a significant role by regulating consumers' micro signals and macro signals. The originality of this paper lies in its in-depth exploration of the multiple impacts of scarcity on consumer perceptions and it reveals the reasons for panic-buying behaviours. In doing so, it provides practical guidelines and understanding for consumers, businesses and the government.
... This finding underscores the significance of clear and open communication, efficient administration, and salient anticipatory actions in fostering public reliance and assurance in difficult circumstances. The findings of a cross-national survey by Han et al. (28) for example indicated a significant correlation between an increased level of confidence in governmental institutions concerning the management of COVID-19 and the increased uptake of healthy and prosocial behaviors. Trust was found to be impacted positively by various factors, such as the perception of the government's organizational efficiency, its proficiency in disseminating clear and accurate information regarding COVID-19, and a perceived sense of equity (29). ...
Background
The COVID-19 pandemic became a global emergency, and it is vital to understand the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of populations regarding this disease to prevent its spread.
Objective
The study aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the Indonesian public toward COVID-19.
Methods
An observational study was conducted in Indonesia between November 2020 and January 2021. The study employed a validated questionnaire with 391 respondents to the survey. A comparative analysis was performed to assess the mean differences in respondents’ characteristics in terms of their knowledge, attitude, and practice scores. Furthermore, regression analysis was used to investigate those factors associated with the good practice of health protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Results
The findings showed significant differences in the average knowledge scores across gender, geographical location, and educational attainment. Furthermore, significant differences in practices were identified in terms of gender and educational attainment. The findings of the study indicate that the participants demonstrated a significant awareness of COVID-19, as evidenced by their high mean knowledge score of 17.83 ± 1.74 out of a possible total score of 22 points. The results indicate that the respondents exhibited a positive attitude toward COVID-19 prevention measures, as evidenced by an attitude score of 26.95 ± 3.14 out of a possible total score of 30 points. Additionally, the mean score for good practice in health protocols aimed at reducing COVID-19 infection was found to be high (4.23 ± 0.96) at 5 points. This suggests that the study participants had already adopted effective measures to comply with the recommended health guidelines. The results of the regression analysis indicated that gender, level of education, and knowledge were statistically significant predictors for adherence to health protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic ( p < 0.05).
Conclusion
The aforementioned results offer significant perspectives into the populace’s comprehension, disposition, and conduct regarding COVID-19 in Indonesia. These insights could potentially contribute to the formulation of efficacious measures aimed at curtailing transmission of the virus.
Introduction: General trust and trust in various social institutions/agents are argued to positively influence the outcome, more so, in a crisis. Mitigating a crisis requires actions from individuals, family, friends, co-workers, various policymaking, and implementing agencies, media, and other agencies with whom people interact. In the COVID-19 situation, people individuals did not have a choice but to access essential services even with the risk of infection. Personal experiences also guide individuals' trust in various social groups and are responsible for taking individual action of protecting themselves in the pandemic. To what extent people trusted various social groups and observed appropriate behavior is investigated in this research. Methods: Responses were collected through a structured, web-based questionnaire where respondents self-reported their trust in various social agents and the extent to which they observed COVID-appropriate behavior. Respondents primarily belonged to the eastern part of India. Results: This study finds significant demographic differences in observing appropriate behavior leading to an identification of a vulnerable group. Second, trust in the inner group (family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers among others) is least important whereas trust in professionals and administrative institutions is the most important. Trust in the central government, media, and politicians among others is counterproductive to observing the appropriate behavior. Conclusion: People repose higher trust in professionals and administrative institutions in a crisis situation. Professional and administrative leadership helps in more effective crisis management leading to better behavioral compliance of the public. Any other leadership may be ineffective or counter-productive.
Concerns about global instability and vulnerability have been raised by the massive economic crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the COVID-19 epidemic and subsequent prolonged lockdowns have caused operational and financial difficulties for Indian institutions. Banks have devised a variety of measures to deal with the fallout from the epidemic, and as a consequence, clients have altered their financial behavior. The study takes a qualitative approach, analyzing the behaviors of gig workers via the lens of “expert mining.” Researchers found that gig workers' employment uncertainty had the reverse effect on their behavior, making them more likely to sacrifice spending in lieu of saving for the future and significantly reducing on necessities such as livelihood spending and travel plan. In addition, the research found that there was a favorable association between the attitude towards the internet and the adoption of mobile banking among gig workers during Covid uncertainty.
Purpose
This article seeks to discuss trust within the context of public health crises using an autopoietic systems perspective that positions communication as one of its core concepts. This article will explore trust studies conducted during public health crises in this Millennium (from SARS to COVID-19 pandemics), including their problems; briefly summarize Luhmann's concept of Vertrauen; and use this concept to analyze trust issues during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
This article will explore trust studies conducted during public health crises from SARS to COVID-19 pandemics, including their problems. The perspective used is an explication of Niklas Luhmann's theory regarding Vertrauen which was derived as a framework for reading empirical facts on trust issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research design and exploration stages were inspired by the theory of autopoiesis systems by Niklas Luhmann.
Findings
From a systems perspective, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the extraordinary complexity of the linkages between social systems. Trust will continue to evolve dynamically as new variants emerge in society. Consequently, the pandemic has provided the momentum necessary for maximally exploring the concept of trust. Indonesia thus experienced significant obstacles when making and implementing disaster mitigation policies. Owing to the lack of a trust system, greater emphasis was given to control and power. There has been little preparedness to create and reinforce public trust, and this in turn has stifled efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Originality/value
This study of trust, communication and public health crises has provided space to reflect on the development of trust within the social system. This study shows that trust can prove to be a very important factor in resolving a crisis. However, the complexity of the interrelationships of the social system can affect the quality of trust. The context of Indonesia's social system which is very complex due to population density and the dynamics of the development of its social system which is very diverse as an archipelagic country has contributed to the originality of the study of trust in times of crisis in a growing contemporary society.
Based on the preceding discussions, these concluding pages address what could be done for a fair society through the experience of COVID-19. It seems that the era of COVID-19 is almost over (as at the timing of writing, i.e., middle of 2023), without a clear-cut transition towards a “post” pandemic period, but its impact still persists. The pandemic indeed continues to affect countries, developed and developing (emerging) alike, yet it clearly affects developing countries disproportionately (Saasa and James 2020). That said, there would be a need to conclude our discussions so far, and of course make a proposal toward the development of a fair (or fairer) society after the pandemic, while noting that this attempt remains interim in nature.
Objective:
To evaluate how public perceptions and trust in government communications affected the adoption of protective behaviour in Singapore during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Methods:
We launched our community-based cohort to assess public perceptions of infectious disease outbreaks in mid-2019. After the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Singapore on 23 January, we launched a series of seven COVID-19 surveys to both existing and regularly enrolled new participants every 2 weeks. As well as sociodemographic properties of the participants, we recorded changing responses to judge awareness of the situation, trust in various information sources and perceived risk. We used multivariable logistic regression models to evaluate associations with perceptions of risk and self-reported adopted frequencies of protective behaviour.
Findings:
Our cohort of 633 participants provided 2857 unique responses during the seven COVID-19 surveys. Most agreed or strongly agreed that information from official government sources (99.1%; 528/533) and Singapore-based news agencies (97.9%; 522/533) was trustworthy. Trust in government communication was significantly associated with higher perceived threat (odds ratio, OR: 2.2; 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.6-3.0), but inversely associated with perceived risk of infection (OR: 0.6; 95% CI: 0.4-0.8) or risk of death if infected (OR: 0.6; 95% CI: 0.4-0.9). Trust in government communication was also associated with a greater likelihood of adopting protective behaviour.
Conclusion:
Our findings show that trust is a vital commodity when managing an evolving outbreak. Our repeated surveys provided real-time feedback, allowing an improved understanding of the interplay between perceptions, trust and behaviour.
Significance
This paper makes three contributions. First, it provides insights from Germany on people’s agreement with policy choices that all countries face in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. My findings point to dimensions relevant for policy makers when deciding between voluntary as opposed to enforced measures. These insights include the essential role of trust in government. Second, the paper contributes to the small but important literature on the intersection of policy design, state capacities, and the interplay of obedience and voluntary compliance. Third, my finding that even 30 y after reunification those who have experienced state coercion in East Germany are less control-averse concerning anti–COVID-19 measures than West Germans contributes to the literature on endogenous preferences and comparative cultural studies.
Background
Freeman et al . (2020a, Psychological Medicine , 21, 1–13) argue that there is widespread support for coronavirus conspiracy theories in England. We hypothesise that their estimates of prevalence are inflated due to a flawed research design. When asking respondents to their survey to agree or disagree with pro-conspiracy statements, they used a biased set of response options: four agree options and only one disagree option (and no ‘don't know’ option). We also hypothesise that due to these flawed measures, the Freeman et al. approach under -estimates the strength of the correlation between conspiracy beliefs and compliance. Finally, we hypothesise that, due to reliance on bivariate correlations, Freeman et al. over -estimate the causal connection between conspiracy beliefs and compliance.
Methods
In a pre-registered study, we conduct an experiment embedded in a survey of a representative sample of 2057 adults in England (fieldwork: 16−19 July 2020).
Results
Measured using our advocated ‘best practice’ approach (balanced response options, with a don't know option), prevalence of support for coronavirus conspiracies is only around five-eighths (62.3%) of that indicated by the Freeman et al. approach. We report mixed results on our correlation and causation hypotheses.
Conclusions
To avoid over-estimating prevalence of support for coronavirus conspiracies, we advocate using a balanced rather than imbalanced set of response options, and including a don't know option.
Background:
Much research effort is focused on developing an effective vaccine for combatting coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Vaccine development itself, however, will not be enough given that a sufficient amount of people will need to be vaccinated for widespread immunity. Vaccine hesitancy is on the rise, varies across countries, and is associated with conspiratorial worldview. Given the rise in COVID-19-related conspiracy theories, we aimed to examine the levels of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and its association with beliefs on the origin of the novel coronavirus in a cross-cultural study.
Methods:
We conducted an online survey in the UK (N = 1088) and Turkey (N = 3936), and gathered information on participants' willingness to vaccinate for a potential COVID-19 vaccine, beliefs on the origin of the novel coronavirus, and several behavioural and demographic predictors (such as anxiety, risk perception, government satisfaction levels) that influence vaccination and origin beliefs.
Results:
In all, 31% of the participants in Turkey and 14% in the UK were unsure about getting themselves vaccinated for a COVID-19 vaccine. In both countries, 3% of the participants rejected to be vaccinated. Also, 54% of the participants in Turkey and 63% in the UK believed in the natural origin of the novel coronavirus. Believing in the natural origin significantly increased the odds of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance.
Conclusions:
Our results point at a concerning level of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, especially in Turkey, and suggest that wider communication of the scientific consensus on the origin of the novel coronavirus with the public may help future campaigns targeting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.
Trust between governors and the governed is seen as essential to facilitating good governance. This claim has become a prominent contention during the coronavirus pandemic. The crisis also presents a unique test of key hypotheses in the trust literature. Moreover, understanding the dynamics of trust, how it facilitates and hinders policy responses, and also the likely effects of these responses on trust, are going to be fundamental questions in policy and trust research in the future. In this paper, we review the early literature on the coronavirus pandemic and political and social trust, summarise their findings, and highlight key challenges for future research. We show how the studies shed light on trust’s association with implementation of government measures, public compliance with them, mortality rates, and the effect of government action on levels of trust. We also urge caution given the varying ways of measuring trust and operationalising the impact of the pandemic, the existence of common issues with quantitative studies, and the relatively limited geographical scope of studies to date. We argue that it is going to be important to have a holistic understanding of these dynamics, using mixed-methods research as well as the quantitative studies we review here.
Background:
An invisible threat has visibly altered the world. Governments and key institutions have had to implement decisive responses to the danger posed by the coronavirus pandemic. Imposed change will increase the likelihood that alternative explanations take hold. In a proportion of the general population there may be strong scepticism, fear of being misled, and false conspiracy theories. Our objectives were to estimate the prevalence of conspiracy thinking about the pandemic and test associations with reduced adherence to government guidelines.
Methods:
A non-probability online survey with 2501 adults in England, quota sampled to match the population for age, gender, income, and region.
Results:
Approximately 50% of this population showed little evidence of conspiracy thinking, 25% showed a degree of endorsement, 15% showed a consistent pattern of endorsement, and 10% had very high levels of endorsement. Higher levels of coronavirus conspiracy thinking were associated with less adherence to all government guidelines and less willingness to take diagnostic or antibody tests or to be vaccinated. Such ideas were also associated with paranoia, general vaccination conspiracy beliefs, climate change conspiracy belief, a conspiracy mentality, and distrust in institutions and professions. Holding coronavirus conspiracy beliefs was also associated with being more likely to share opinions.
Conclusions:
In England there is appreciable endorsement of conspiracy beliefs about coronavirus. Such ideas do not appear confined to the fringes. The conspiracy beliefs connect to other forms of mistrust and are associated with less compliance with government guidelines and greater unwillingness to take up future tests and treatment.
The COVID-19 pandemic represents a massive global health crisis. Because the crisis requires large-scale behaviour change and places significant psychological burdens on individuals, insights from the social and behavioural sciences can be used to help align human behaviour with the recommendations of epidemiologists and public health experts. Here we discuss evidence from a selection of research topics relevant to pandemics, including work on navigating threats, social and cultural influences on behaviour, science communication, moral decision-making, leadership, and stress and coping. In each section, we note the nature and quality of prior research, including uncertainty and unsettled issues. We identify several insights for effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic and highlight important gaps researchers should move quickly to fill in the coming weeks and months.
In the COVID-19 pandemic, the most vulnerable people are most likely to be the hardest hit. What can we learn from past epidemics to protect not only refugees but also the wider population?
Non-uniform compliance with public policy by citizens can undermine the effectiveness of government, particularly during crises. Mitigation policies intended to combat the novel coronavirus offer a real-world measure of citizen compliance, allowing us to examine the determinants of asymmetrical responsiveness. Analyzing county-level cellphone data, we leverage staggered roll-out to estimate the causal effect of stay-at-home orders on mobility using a difference-in-differences strategy. We find movement is significantly curtailed, and examination of descriptive heterogeneous effects suggests the key roles that partisanship and trust play in producing irregular compliance. We find that Republican-leaning counties comply less than Democratic-leaning ones, which we argue underlines the importance of trust in science and acceptance of large-scale government policies for compliance. However, this partisan compliance gap shrinks when directives are given by Republican leaders, suggesting citizens are more trusting of co-partisan leaders. Furthermore, we find that higher levels of social trust increase compliance; yet these gains attenuate or intensify depending upon community-level partisan sentiments. Our study provides a real-world, behavioral measure that demonstrates the influence of partisanship, social trust, and their interaction on citizen welfare. Finally, we argue that our results speak to how trust in government may impact successful containment of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While degraded trust and cohesion within a country are often shown to have large socio-economic impacts, they can also have dramatic consequences when compliance is required for collective survival. We illustrate this point in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. Policy responses all over the world aim to reduce social interaction and limit contagion. Using data on human mobility and political trust at regional level in Europe, we examine whether the compliance to these containment policies depends on the level of trust in policy makers prior to the crisis. Using a double difference approach around the time of lockdown announcements, we find that high-trust regions decrease their mobility related to non-necessary activities significantly more than low-trust regions. We also exploit country and time variation in treatment using the daily strictness of national policies. The efficiency of policy stringency in terms of mobility reduction significantly increases with trust. The trust effect is nonlinear and increases with the degree of stringency. We assess how the impact of trust on mobility potentially translates in terms of mortality growth rate.