‘You can’t be careful enough’: Measuring interpersonal trust during a pandemic

Wollebæk, Dag; Fladmoe, Audun; Steen‐Johnsen, Kari

doi:10.1080/21515581.2022.2066539

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…The standard question aim is to measure whether respondents exercise caution to avoid being cheated. However, in the context of a pandemic in which we need to be cautious in our social interactions for a very different reason—anyone can be a carrier of a transmissible disease—this aim may be thwarted: There is now solid evidence that, even if we believe that most people can be trusted, we may still reply that one cannot be too careful ( 40 ).…”

Section: Measures and Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 infection induces higher trust in strangers

Gambetta

Morisi

2022

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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How does the COVID-19 pandemic affect interpersonal trust? Most evidence shows that natural disasters reinforce trust and cooperation, but the COVID-19 virus differs from other calamities, since it spreads through contact with people, potentially increasing suspicion and distrust, as, according to contemporaneous writers’ accounts, seems to have been the case with the Black Death, the London plague, and the Spanish influenza. We investigate the link between interpersonal trust and individuals exposed to COVID-19, either vicariously through their community or networks or directly by becoming infected. We rely on an original panel survey, including a survey experiment, with a representative sample of adults in Italy, one of the countries hardest struck by the pandemic. Our experimental findings reveal that priming people about the risk that the pandemic poses to their health leads to a substantial increase in their trust in strangers. Our panel data analysis of within-individual effects shows that those who become infected trust strangers more than those who are not infected. Our findings could be explained by people observing higher than expected altruistic behavior or becoming more dependent on other people’s support, consistent with the “emancipation theory of trust.” When people recover from COVID-19, however, they drop to trusting strangers as much as those who were not directly exposed to the virus, an indication that the positive effects on trust during the pandemic have an emotional source. Nonetheless, the evidence suggests that, in the aggregate, there has been a small but significant increase in trust among the general population relative to prepandemic levels.

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Section: Measures and Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 infection induces higher trust in strangers

Gambetta

Morisi

2022

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…On the other hand, we use a measure from previous research that taps into "generalized trust." These two operationalizations are important because, as Wollebaek et al (2022) show, the inconsistent results regarding interpersonal trust during the pandemic can be attributed to the use of different measures in survey research (see also the discussion above on trust and compliance). Standard generalized trust measures ask respondents whether "most people can be trusted" or that "one cannot be too careful when dealing with others."…”

Section: Survey Operationalizations and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Sweden, people with higher institutional trust were more likely to practice careful hand hygiene (an official recommendation) but less likely to wear a facemask (a "nonrecommendation") (Johansson et al, 2021, p. 3). A general problem with this research is that different measures of trust are often used, which might be the reason for inconsistencies in the results (e.g., using the standard measure of generalized trust vs. other measures of interpersonal trust, see Wollebaek et al, 2022 and the operationalization section of this article). Nevertheless, we conclude that theoretically there are good reasons to consider both forms of trust when analyzing COVID-19 compliance behavior.…”

Section: Other Factors Explaining Covid-19 Compliancementioning

confidence: 99%

Complying with COVID‐19 policy: The role of citizenship norms for young people's compliance with Sweden's voluntary COVID‐19 recommendations

Micheletti,

Verhaegen

2023

Scand Pol Stud

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Sweden's COVID‐19 policy was characterized by reliance on voluntary compliance. Citizens were expected to act responsibly. Previous research has not focused on the role of citizenship norms (duty‐based, engaged, and critical) in the COVID‐19 crisis. This is an important omission, since citizenship norms are expected to raise social responsibility and trigger prosocial behavior. This article asks how important citizenship norms are for explaining voluntary COVID‐19 policy compliance. Additionally, it considers perceptions of how other people comply, individual background factors, and interpersonal and institutional trust. The study focuses on Swedish high school youth, a group reported to comply less with voluntary COVID‐19 measures. Using survey data (N = 1823), we find higher reported voluntary compliance by high school youth who adhere more strongly to the duty‐based citizenship norm. Importantly, believing that other people follow the COVID‐19 recommendations is strongly associated with following them. Thus, next to citizenship norms, “descriptive norms” (i.e., what other people are doing) are central for individuals to decide how they will comply. We further find that differences in worry about the pandemic and socioeconomic background factors (migration background and economic situation of the household) explain variation in compliance. Institutional and interpersonal trust play a less important role. These findings challenge the strong focus on trust in previous research. Our findings have implications for research on policy compliance in the context of crisis, and for public policy.

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“…Past research on the role of trust and COVID-19 behaviors is often both contradictory and dependent on the measures used (see Wollebaek et al, 2021). However, previous research has demonstrated 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1080631 that variations in societal and interpersonal trust influenced one's compliance to health directives and behaviors during the pandemic.…”

Section: Trust Gender and Fear Of Covid-19 In Adultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Not all members of society are truthful, and this might impact mortality ( Reiersen et al, 2022 ). Nonetheless, while the emergent findings on institutional trust appear consistent within the context of COVID-19, there has been little work on the role of interpersonal trust (see Wollebæk et al, 2021 ), with some studies showing both negative ( Iacono et al, 2021 ) and positive ( Kye and Hwang, 2020 ) effects of the pandemic on interpersonal trust. Regarding fear of COVID-19; those with decreased interpersonal trust may be expected to show increased fear, as those who experience greater worry may be less trusting of groups ( Jørgensen et al, 2021 ), and tend to be more adherent to social distancing guidelines ( Oosterhoff and Palmer, 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fear of COVID-19 is associated with trust, subjective numeracy, and differentially with loneliness in older versus younger adults

Chung

Teasell²,

Pergher³

et al. 2023

Front. Psychol.

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IntroductionThe emotional impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting public health emergency are only beginning to be understood.MethodsWe assessed the contributions of emotional and cognitive factors and age-related comorbidities to greater COVID-19 fear in a community dwelling sample of 142 younger (Mage = 19.63, SDage = 2.59) and 157 older (Mage = 72.01, SDage = 7.06) adults, between July 2020 and July 2021. We hypothesized that individuals with increased loneliness, depression, and/or decreased subjective numeracy (SN) and interpersonal trust would experience more COVID-19 fear. We also predicted that females and older adults would experience more COVID-19 fear given that age-related comorbidities are associated with increased illness severity.ResultsResults showed that the extent of loneliness in older adults was more strongly related to fear of COVID-19 than it was in younger adults (β = 0.197, p = 0.016), and poorer SN was associated with increased COVID-19 fear in both age groups (β = −0.138, p = 0.016). Further, higher interpersonal mistrust was associated with increased COVID-19 fear (β = 0.136, p = 0.039), as was identifying as female (β = 0.137, p = 0.013).DiscussionGiven that self-described poor numeracy was a marker for greater COVID-19 fear, investigators and policy makers might consider mitigation opportunities addressing data literacy requirements imposed by the media. Further, outreach to mitigate loneliness, particularly of the elderly, might effectively lessen the negative psychological impact of this ongoing public health crisis.

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‘You can’t be careful enough’: Measuring interpersonal trust during a pandemic

Cited by 10 publications

References 27 publications

COVID-19 infection induces higher trust in strangers

COVID-19 infection induces higher trust in strangers

Complying with COVID‐19 policy: The role of citizenship norms for young people's compliance with Sweden's voluntary COVID‐19 recommendations

Fear of COVID-19 is associated with trust, subjective numeracy, and differentially with loneliness in older versus younger adults

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