IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i3p1815-d742805.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

In Whom Do We Trust? A Multifoci Person-Centered Perspective on Institutional Trust during COVID-19

Author

Listed:
  • Lixin Jiang

    (School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New Zealand)

  • Erica L. Bettac

    (Department of Psychology, Washington State University Vancouver, Vancouver, WA 98686, USA)

  • Hyun Jung Lee

    (Department of Psychology, Washington State University Vancouver, Vancouver, WA 98686, USA)

  • Tahira M. Probst

    (Department of Psychology, Washington State University Vancouver, Vancouver, WA 98686, USA)

Abstract

Institutional trust plays a crucial role when a nation is facing mega crises (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic) and has implications for employee work experiences and well-being. To date, researchers largely consider how institutional trust or trust in government may predict variables of interest in isolation. However, this variable-centered perspective ignores the possibility that there are subpopulations of employees who may differ in their trust in different institutions (i.e., the state government, the federal government). To address this, we examined institutional trust with two foci (i.e., trust in state government and trust in federal government) from a person-centered perspective. Using latent profile analysis and data from 492 U.S.-based employees, we identified five trust profiles: high trustors, federal trustors, state trustors, the ambivalent, and distrusters, and found that these profiles differentially predicted attitudes towards and behavioral compliance with CDC recommended COVID-19 prevention practices, job insecurity, affective commitment, helping behavior, and psychological well-being.

Suggested Citation

  • Lixin Jiang & Erica L. Bettac & Hyun Jung Lee & Tahira M. Probst, 2022. "In Whom Do We Trust? A Multifoci Person-Centered Perspective on Institutional Trust during COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-20, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:3:p:1815-:d:742805
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/3/1815/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/3/1815/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Angela J. Xu & Raymond Loi & Hang-yue Ngo, 2016. "Ethical Leadership Behavior and Employee Justice Perceptions: The Mediating Role of Trust in Organization," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(3), pages 493-504, March.
    2. Helliwell, John F. & Huang, Haifang, 2008. "How's Your Government? International Evidence Linking Good Government and Well-Being," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(4), pages 595-619, October.
    3. Condon, Bradly John & Sinha, Tapen, 2010. "Who is that masked person: The use of face masks on Mexico City public transportation during the Influenza A (H1N1) outbreak," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 50-56, April.
    4. Gabriele Prati & Luca Pietrantoni & Bruna Zani, 2011. "A Social‐Cognitive Model of Pandemic Influenza H1N1 Risk Perception and Recommended Behaviors in Italy," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 645-656, April.
    5. Paul R. Brewer & Lee Sigelman, 2002. "Trust in Government: Personal Ties that Bind?," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 83(2), pages 624-631, June.
    6. Michael Siegrist & George Cvetkovich & Claudia Roth, 2000. "Salient Value Similarity, Social Trust, and Risk/Benefit Perception," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(3), pages 353-362, June.
    7. Kazuya Nakayachi & George Cvetkovich, 2010. "Public Trust in Government Concerning Tobacco Control in Japan," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 143-152, January.
    8. Andrew Wroe, 2014. "Political trust and job insecurity in 18 European polities," Journal of Trust Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 90-112, October.
    9. Jone L. Pearce & Imre Branyiczki & Gregory A. Bigley, 2000. "Insufficient Bureaucracy: Trust and Commitment in Particularistic Organizations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(2), pages 148-162, April.
    10. Timothy C. Earle & George Cvetkovich, 1997. "Culture, Cosmopolitanism, and Risk Management," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(1), pages 55-65, February.
    11. Andrea Bazzoli & Tahira M. Probst & Hyun Jung Lee, 2021. "Economic Stressors, COVID-19 Attitudes, Worry, and Behaviors among U.S. Working Adults: A Mixture Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-14, February.
    12. Dolan, Paul & Peasgood, Tessa & White, Mathew, 2008. "Do we really know what makes us happy A review of the economic literature on the factors associated with subjective well-being," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 94-122, February.
    13. J. Barnett & H. Cooper & V. Senior, 2007. "Belief in Public Efficacy, Trust, and Attitudes Toward Modern Genetic Science," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 921-933, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ye, Maoxin & Lyu, Zeyu, 2020. "Trust, risk perception, and COVID-19 infections: Evidence from multilevel analyses of combined original dataset in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    2. Michael Siegrist, 2021. "Trust and Risk Perception: A Critical Review of the Literature," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(3), pages 480-490, March.
    3. Andrew E. Clark, 2018. "Four Decades of the Economics of Happiness: Where Next?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(2), pages 245-269, June.
    4. Fischer, Justina AV, 2008. "The Welfare Effects of Social Mobility," MPRA Paper 16339, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jun 2009.
    5. Blanchflower, David G. & Oswald, Andrew J., 2011. "Antidepressants and Age," IZA Discussion Papers 5785, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Henri Njangang, 2019. "Governance and Happiness in African countries," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 39(2), pages 1546-1555.
    7. Michael Siegrist, 2010. "Trust and Confidence: The Difficulties in Distinguishing the Two Concepts in Research," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(7), pages 1022-1024, July.
    8. Oscar Zapata, 2024. "Unequally Happy: Happiness Inequality Across Satisfaction Domains in a Developing-Country Context," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 19(6), pages 3129-3151, December.
    9. Gregor Gonza & Anže Burger, 2017. "Subjective Well-Being During the 2008 Economic Crisis: Identification of Mediating and Moderating Factors," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(6), pages 1763-1797, December.
    10. Michael Siegrist & Timothy C. Earle & Heinz Gutscher, 2003. "Test of a Trust and Confidence Model in the Applied Context of Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Risks," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(4), pages 705-716, August.
    11. Blanchflower, David G. & Oswald, Andrew J., 2016. "Antidepressants and age: A new form of evidence for U-shaped well-being through life," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 46-58.
    12. Cordero, José Manuel & Salinas-Jiménez, Javier & Salinas-Jiménez, M Mar, 2017. "Exploring factors affecting the level of happiness across countries: A conditional robust nonparametric frontier analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 256(2), pages 663-672.
    13. Bartolini, Stefano & Sarracino, Francesco, 2018. "Do People Care About Future Generations? Derived Preferences from Happiness Data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 253-275.
    14. Fischer, Justina AV, 2010. "Accounting for Unobserved Country Heterogeneity in Happiness Research: Country Fixed Effects versus Region Fixed Effects," MPRA Paper 22272, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Leonardo Becchetti & Andrew E. Clark & Elena Giachin Ricco, 2011. "The value of diplomacy: Bilateral relations and immigrant well-being," PSE Working Papers halshs-00580907, HAL.
    16. Jiayuan Li, 2016. "Why Economic Growth did not Translate into Increased Happiness: Preliminary Results of a Multilevel Modeling of Happiness in China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 241-263, August.
    17. Chiara Amini & Elodie Douarin, 2020. "Corruption and Life Satisfaction in Transition: Is Corruption a Social Norm in Eastern Europe?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 151(2), pages 723-766, September.
    18. Niclas Berggren & Christian Bjørnskov & Therese Nilsson, 2017. "What Aspects of Society Matter for the Quality of Life of a Minority? Global Evidence from the New Gay Happiness Index," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 132(3), pages 1163-1192, July.
    19. Fischer, Justina AV, 2009. "The Welfare Effects of Social Mobility: An Analysis for OECD countries," MPRA Paper 17070, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Bjørnskov, Christian & Dreher, Axel & Fischer, Justina A.V., 2010. "Formal institutions and subjective well-being: Revisiting the cross-country evidence," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 419-430, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:3:p:1815-:d:742805. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.