How Trust Makes a Difference: The Impact of the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Life Satisfaction in Germany

Felix Bittmann

doi:10.1007/s11482-021-09956-0

Abstract

The extraordinary COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most severe disruptions of human life since the end of World War II, even in rich and industrialized countries like Germany. The introduction of a rather comprehensive “lockdown” and the restriction of multiple basic civil rights have affected the population in many areas of life, like employment, economic prosperity, health and trust in public institutions. The question arises how life satisfaction is influenced by these measures in detail and whether there are interactions between institutional trust, life satisfaction and time of crisis. Fixed-effect regression analyses using German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) data demonstrate that life satisfaction has fallen sharply after the onset of the crisis and that interaction effects with institutional trust are present. Individuals with low levels of pre-crisis trust in institutions like the government, courts or the media report a stronger decrease of satisfaction than individuals with higher levels of trust. We believe that these results are relevant to explain the role of institutions in times of crisis and might serve as foundations for interventions to strengthen trust and increase overall satisfaction.

Highlights

The COVID-19 pandemic can be described as one of the biggest global crises since World War II, as it affects basically every human being, regardless of their place of residence, social status or political affiliation (Lohse, 2020)
It seems likely that these measures have had a significant impact on the social and psychological well-being of the population and effects on overall life satisfaction are to be expected (Diener, 2012)
It can be concluded that the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany is one of the biggest crises in post-war history and can be classified as a period effect that affects all members of a population (Kosloski, 1986; Zacher & Rudolph, 2020)

Summary

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic can be described as one of the biggest global crises since World War II, as it affects basically every human being, regardless of their place of residence, social status or political affiliation (Lohse, 2020). There are good reasons to assume that some social groups have a higher chance of not participating in the COVID-19 extra survey: older participants might be reluctant to take part in the survey online without the assistance of an interviewer; people with small children at home might have less time since they have to monitor their children constantly as schools and other childcare institutions are closed If these groups have different satisfaction values, which is a plausible assumption, bias emerges. Note that from a statistical point of view the imputed results should be less biased and more correct as they account for potential selective dropout

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion