Trusting to Abide: The Role of Institutional and Interpersonal Trust for the Support of Covid-19 Prevention Behaviors and Policies and the Mediating Role of National Identification
27 Pages Posted: 21 Mar 2022
Abstract
Trust in the era of the pandemic has been a key determining factor of compliance with health protective behaviors and policies. However, little has been evidenced on underlying mechanisms of this relationship, such as national identification. Lack of trust may give rise to xenophobic attitudes, making national identities salient and leading to perceptions of foreigners as a threat against domestic public health states and economies but, on the other hand, trust may ensure shared social identifications as a nation as highly important. To gain a better understanding of how different levels of trust – interpersonal, institutional and trust towards science – has affected health containment behaviors and support of public health policies, as well as what the mediating role of national identification is, we analyzed a national representative sample from the United Kingdom (Total N = 895). We found that the different measures of trust, as well as national identification, positively predicted abidance to health containment behaviors as well as support of public health policies. Facets of trust were also mediated by national identification to predict health containment behaviors and support for public health policies. We discuss the results in light of the societal significance of restoration and assurance of people’s multilevel trust amidst the still evolving hygienic crisis that threatens nations worldwide.
Keywords: National identity, Trust, Public health policies, Health protective behaviors, Pandemic
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