Effects of digital use on trust in political institutions among ethnic minority and hegemonic group – A case study

Abstract

The current study was based on data from a nationwide Annual Social Survey to investigate the correlation between types of Internet usage (seeking information, e-government use, e-mail, social media and peer-to-peer Internet telephony) and trust in political institutions in Israel's Jewish majority and Arab minority. Trust in government, parliament, and political parties was found to be significantly higher among Jews than Arabs. Our findings show that first level digital divide reflected in Internet use vs non-use does not correlate with political trust. Among Internet users we found different patterns of association between digital uses and trust in political institutions, which may presumably be explained by different group status. E-government use and social media use were positively correlated with political trust only among Jews. Seeking information and e-mail use were negatively associated with trust in political institutions only among Arabs. Peer-to-peer Internet telephony was negatively correlated with trust in government among both groups. Our important finding is that in spite of the processes of digitization, the effects of digital use on political trust are still relatively marginal. In both groups, the primary predictor of political trust is attitudes toward the functioning of different public institutions.