Americans’ Trust in Government and Health Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The importance of trust in government amid health emergencies has become apparent, especially given its impact on health behavior. Yet scholars often treat trust simplistically, measuring it at one point in time and in a unidimensional way. We use a unique series of surveys carried out during the fi...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Russell Sage Foundation
2022-12-01
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| Series: | RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences |
| Subjects: |
| _version_ | 1828264510532616192 |
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| author | Elizabeth Suhay Aparna Soni Claudia Persico Dave E. Marcotte |
| author_facet | Elizabeth Suhay Aparna Soni Claudia Persico Dave E. Marcotte |
| author_sort | Elizabeth Suhay |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The importance of trust in government amid health emergencies has become apparent, especially given its impact on health behavior. Yet scholars often treat trust simplistically, measuring it at one point in time and in a unidimensional way. We use a unique series of surveys carried out during the first year of the pandemic to examine changing trust in different government actors over time and then link relative trust to compliance with expert-recommended health behaviors. We find that trust in government declined during this period, with especially large declines for federal and state relative to local government. We find somewhat steeper declines among women, Black Americans, the less educated, and Republicans. Finally, we find that trust in state governments and local health officials was positively associated with protective health behaviors, especially among Republicans, and that trust in the federal government was associated with a lower likelihood of such behaviors. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T04:26:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-fd9fc979f200410699cb7514ac4ac985 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2377-8253 2377-8261 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T04:26:23Z |
| publishDate | 2022-12-01 |
| publisher | Russell Sage Foundation |
| record_format | Article |
| series | RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-fd9fc979f200410699cb7514ac4ac9852022-12-22T03:02:32ZengRussell Sage FoundationRSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences2377-82532377-82612022-12-0188221244https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2022.8.8.10Americans’ Trust in Government and Health Behaviors During the COVID-19 PandemicElizabeth Suhay0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1976-8573Aparna Soni1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0737-485XClaudia Persico2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0332-8509Dave E. Marcotte3American UniversityAmerican UniversityAmerican UniversityAmerican UniversityThe importance of trust in government amid health emergencies has become apparent, especially given its impact on health behavior. Yet scholars often treat trust simplistically, measuring it at one point in time and in a unidimensional way. We use a unique series of surveys carried out during the first year of the pandemic to examine changing trust in different government actors over time and then link relative trust to compliance with expert-recommended health behaviors. We find that trust in government declined during this period, with especially large declines for federal and state relative to local government. We find somewhat steeper declines among women, Black Americans, the less educated, and Republicans. Finally, we find that trust in state governments and local health officials was positively associated with protective health behaviors, especially among Republicans, and that trust in the federal government was associated with a lower likelihood of such behaviors.trust in governmentcovid-19 pandemichealth behaviorparty polarization |
| spellingShingle | Elizabeth Suhay Aparna Soni Claudia Persico Dave E. Marcotte Americans’ Trust in Government and Health Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences trust in government covid-19 pandemic health behavior party polarization |
| title | Americans’ Trust in Government and Health Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| title_full | Americans’ Trust in Government and Health Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| title_fullStr | Americans’ Trust in Government and Health Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| title_full_unstemmed | Americans’ Trust in Government and Health Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| title_short | Americans’ Trust in Government and Health Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| title_sort | americans trust in government and health behaviors during the covid 19 pandemic |
| topic | trust in government covid-19 pandemic health behavior party polarization |
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