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Trust in Government Actions During the COVID-19 Crisis

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  • Marc Oliver Rieger

    (University of Trier, Research Cluster “Cultures in Transitions”)

  • Mei Wang

    (WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management)

Abstract

The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic puts countries and their governments in an unprecedented situation. Strong countermeasures have been implemented in most places, but how much do people trust their governments in handling this crisis? Using data from a worldwide survey, conducted between March 20th and April 22nd, 2020, with more than 100,000 participants, we study people’s perceptions of government reactions in 57 countries. We find that media freedom reduces government trust directly as well as indirectly via a more negative assessment of government reactions as either insufficient or too strict. Higher level of education is associated with higher government trust and lower tendency to judge government reactions as too extreme. We also find different predictors of perceived insufficient reactions vs. too-extreme reactions. In particular, number of COVID-19 deaths significantly predicts perceived insufficient reactions but is not related to perceived too-extreme reactions. Further survey evidence suggests that conspiracy theory believers tend to perceive government countermeasures as too strict.

Suggested Citation

  • Marc Oliver Rieger & Mei Wang, 2022. "Trust in Government Actions During the COVID-19 Crisis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 967-989, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:159:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s11205-021-02772-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-021-02772-x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Edward Gu & Tianguang Meng & Hongying Wang & Alexander Zhang, 2023. "E-Government Use, Perceived Transparency, Public Knowledge of Government Performance, and Satisfaction with Government: An Analysis of Mediating, Moderating, and Framing Mechanisms Based on the COVID-," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 79-124, September.
    2. Talia Goren & Dana R. Vashdi & Itai Beeri, 2022. "Count on trust: the indirect effect of trust in government on policy compliance with health behavior instructions," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 55(4), pages 593-630, December.
    3. Naveh Eskinazi & Miki Malul & Mosi Rosenboim & Tal Shavit, 2023. "Do you still trust me? An experimental study on the effect of uncertainty, complexity and anchors in a trust game," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(2), pages 892-905, March.
    4. Cai, Yifeng Troy & Mason, Katherine A., 2022. "Why they willingly complied: Ordinary people, the big environment, and the control of COVID-19 in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 309(C).
    5. Costa-Font, Joan & Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina, 2023. "Health System Trust and Compliance with COVID-19 Restrictions," IZA Discussion Papers 15961, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Ryota Nakatani & Qianqian Zhang & Isaura Garcia Valdes, 2024. "Health Expenditure Decentralization and Health Outcomes: The Importance of Governance," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 54(1), pages 59-87.
    7. Costa-Font, Joan & Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina, 2023. "Trusting the health system and COVID 19 restriction compliance," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118267, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Costa-Font, Joan & Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina, 2023. "Trusting the Health System and COVID 19 Restriction Compliance," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    9. Joan Costa-i-Font & Cristina Vilaplana-Prieto, 2023. "Health System Trust and Compliance with Covid-19 Restrictions," CESifo Working Paper Series 10291, CESifo.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    SARS-Cov2 pandemics; Government trust; Perception of government interventions; Stringency; Lock-down; Media freedom; Conspiracy theories;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H12 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Crisis Management
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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