The Role of Personal Values in Shaping Perceptions of the Legitimacy of Public Health Officials During a Global Pandemic

Abstract

Major environmental jolts can prompt individuals to critically evaluate their personal view of the legitimacy (i.e., propriety) of established authorities, especially when jolts amplify conflicts between the authority and individuals’ value priorities. The COVID-19 pandemic constituted a major jolt that highlighted both clashes and alignment between the values of public health officials (enhancement of health and disease prevention) and other basic values. Using data from a survey of 1,356 U.S. adults collected in spring 2022, I descriptively assess whether the pandemic jolt prompted individuals to critically evaluate the legitimacy of public health officials. I then investigate how basic values that aligned and clashed with public health values during the pandemic shaped assessments of public health officials’ propriety two years into the pandemic as well as intentions to comply with them in a future health crisis. Descriptive findings reveal that individuals actively assessed public health legitimacy during the pandemic. Other analyses demonstrate how value (mis)alignment affects evaluations of the propriety of public health officials. Values also operate through propriety assessments to influence future compliance intentions, providing insight into social psychological processes undergirding institutional endurance and change.