Does Political Trust Matter? A Meta-analysis on the Consequences of Trust

Devine, Daniel

doi:10.31219/osf.io/47sd2

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…Threat perception is associated with anger and related action tendencies to mitigate the perceived threat (Shepherd et al, 2018), whereas distrust or skepticism does not necessarily demand action. For example, a recent meta-analysis found no relationship between political trust and participation such as protesting, suggesting that a mistrust might lead instead to an exit from politics altogether (Devine, 2022). In contrast, perceptions of threat can motivate actions to protect the in-group and remove power from the out-group (Stephan et al, 2016).…”

Section: Perceiving Scientists As Threat Versus Distrust Of Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Threatening experts: Correlates of viewing scientists as a social threat

Chinn

Hasell²,

Roden³

et al. 2023

Public Underst Sci

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Despite widespread trust in scientists, efforts to curtail their influence suggest some Americans distrust scientists and may even perceive them to be a social threat. Using panel survey data, we examine who holds this viewpoint and potential implications of threat perceptions. Results suggest Republicans and Evangelical identifying individuals perceived more social threat from scientists. News media uses were associated with threat perceptions in divergent ways. Threat perceptions were strongly associated with inaccurate science beliefs, support for excluding scientists from policy-making, and retributive actions toward scientists. Findings highlight the importance of social identity considerations amid concerns about partisan social sorting and politicization of science.

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Section: Perceiving Scientists As Threat Versus Distrust Of Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Threatening experts: Correlates of viewing scientists as a social threat

Chinn

Hasell²,

Roden³

et al. 2023

Public Underst Sci

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“…By operationalizing vertical trust in different ways, one of our contributions is to bolster recent studies empirically justifying longstanding theoretical justifications for doing so (Dawson and Krakoff 2023). This approach also adds to literature on behavioral expressions of mistrust (Devine 2022). Second, our control variables constitute valuable contributions in themselves: high rates of vertical trust among Asian Americans contrast with low trust among Black Americans and other minorities, while tests with a Latinx variable confirm studies documenting unequal access to health care.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Varieties of Mistrust and American Epistemic Fragility

LeVan,

Assenov,

Tower

et al. 2024

Political Research Quarterly

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Mistrust in both government and scientific authority has grown. Yet the relationship between these trends remains underappreciated, even though such mistrust shaped behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic and deserves much blame for America’s troubles with truth. Using original data from 3,000 American counties and at different points of time during the pandemic, we identify social and political conditions that increase different types of “vertical” mistrust. We use tax and Census data to proxy for political trust, and mask wearing and vaccination variables to capture trust in scientific authority. Statistical tests demonstrate a robust relationship between partisanship and both types of trust, confirming national polls and lending support to the “asymmetry hypothesis.” Tests also indicate that psychological distress and socioeconomic vulnerability contribute to mistrust, though partisanship has a powerful mediation effect. Controls reveal high levels of mistrust among evangelicals, rural residents, and some minorities while other minorities are strikingly trusting. The results hold under alternative statistical specifications. We call for more research exploring the behavioral expressions of vertical mistrust, including how it manifests collectively in communities.

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Income Inequality and Political Trust: Do Fairness Perceptions Matter?

Bobzien

2023

Soc Indic Res

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Political trust—in terms of trust in political institutions—is an important precondition for the functioning and stability of democracy. One widely studied determinant of political trust is income inequality. While the empirical finding that societies with lower levels of income inequality have higher levels of trust is well established, the exact ways in which income inequality affects political trust remain unclear. Past research has shown that individuals oftentimes have biased perceptions of inequality. Considering potentially biased inequality perceptions, I argue that individuals compare their perceptions of inequality to their preference for inequality. If they identify a gap between what they perceive and what they prefer (= fairness gap), they consider their attitudes towards inequality unrepresented. This, in turn, reduces trust in political institutions. Using three waves of the ESS and the ISSP in a cross-country perspective, I find that (1) perceiving a larger fairness gap is associated with lower levels of political trust; (2) the fairness gap mediates the link between actual inequality and political trust; and (3) disaggregating the fairness gap measure, political trust is more strongly linked to variation in inequality perceptions than to variation in inequality preferences. This indicates that inequality perceptions are an important factor shaping trust into political institutions.

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Does Political Trust Matter? A Meta-analysis on the Consequences of Trust

Cited by 4 publications

References 65 publications

Threatening experts: Correlates of viewing scientists as a social threat

Threatening experts: Correlates of viewing scientists as a social threat

Varieties of Mistrust and American Epistemic Fragility

Income Inequality and Political Trust: Do Fairness Perceptions Matter?

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