The paradoxical effects of institutional trust on risk perception and risk management in the Covid-19 pandemic: evidence from three societies

Abstract

Adopting the theoretical lenses of social amplification of risk framework and trust paradox, this study examines how people’s attention to media information influences their risk perception and risk management behaviors (i.e. vaccination intention) in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic in three Chinese societies (i.e. Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China). A total of 9,575 valid samples were obtained via online survey panels. The results revealed that media attention significantly influenced risk perception and risk management across the three societies. Institutional trust, however, could amplify or attenuate risk perception and risk management in different societies: While institutional trust was found to have a positive impact on people’s risk perception in Taiwan and Mainland China, a negative impact was discovered in Hong Kong. Moreover, different dimensions of institutional trust, which we term ability-based trust and benevolence-based trust, were found to mediate the effect of media attention on risk perception and risk management in different societies: While both dimensions were significant mediators for Taiwan, benevolence-based trust and ability-based trust was the only mediator for Mainland China and Hong Kong, respectively. The paradoxical impact of institutional trust on risk perception and risk management is explained with contextual factors specific to each of the three societies, supplemented with post-hoc analysis on how publics assign risk management responsibility to risk management institutions in different societies. Overall, the results provide empirical support to the social amplification of risk framework (SARF) by highlighting the roles of media and institutions as social stations that shape risk perception.