Levels Of Trust In Institutions Research Articles

The 2015 Refugee Crisis and Institutional Trust in European Countries

AbstractExogenous events have the potential to affect citizens’ risk-perceptions, (in)security sentiments, electoral choices, policy preferences and institutional trust levels. It has been shown that migrant and refugee flows also affect citizens’ trust and policy preferences. The 2015 refugee crisis as it has come to be known, shook Europe’s cohesion and tested the existing immigration and asylum policies as well as acted as a further stimulus to populist/right wing Eurosceptic parties with an agenda of anti-immigrant restrictive policies. Expectedly, it has attracted considerable attention in the relevant literature. Building on existing studies that examine various aspects associated with the 2015 refugee crisis, the present paper examines its effect on institutional trust levels in Europe. Specifically, it focuses on trust towards the national government, the EU and the two state security services the police and the armed forces. To this effect, the study draws data from successive Eurobarometer surveys before and after the crisis. Employing segmented-type regression models as well as Oaxaca decomposition models it probes into the 2015 refugee crisis’ impact on the levels of institutional trust using over 400,000 responses to the relevant Eurobarometer questions. The results reported herein suggest the presence of “a rally around the flag effect”. Nonetheless, macroeconomic factors such as GDP growth and unemployment as well as differences in behavioural responses also explain a large part of the observed gap in trust before and after the 2015 refugee crisis.

Who shares fake news on social media? Evidence from vaccines and infertility claims in sub-Saharan Africa.

The widespread dissemination of misinformation on social media is a serious threat to global health. To a large extent, it is still unclear who actually shares health-related misinformation deliberately and accidentally. We conducted a large-scale online survey among 5,307 Facebook users in six sub-Saharan African countries, in which we collected information on sharing of fake news and truth discernment. We estimate the magnitude and determinants of deliberate and accidental sharing of misinformation related to three vaccines (HPV, polio, and COVID-19). In an OLS framework we relate the actual sharing of fake news to several socioeconomic characteristics (age, gender, employment status, education), social media consumption, personality factors and vaccine-related characteristics while controlling for country and vaccine-specific effects. We first show that actual sharing rates of fake news articles are substantially higher than those reported from developed countries and that most of the sharing occurs accidentally. Second, we reveal that the determinants of deliberate vs. accidental sharing differ. While deliberate sharing is related to being older and risk-loving, accidental sharing is associated with being older, male, and high levels of trust in institutions. Lastly, we demonstrate that the determinants of sharing differ by the adopted measure (intentions vs. actual sharing) which underscores the limitations of commonly used intention-based measures to derive insights about actual fake news sharing behaviour.

Journalists’ Perception of the Threats and Risks of Corruption in Institutions and the Media

Corruption scandals have been constantly present in the Spanish media in recent years. The public stays informed about these events through the media, so the way in which journalists cover them, as well as their perception of this problem –which threatens and endangers society– as regards the institutions and the media themselves, is of great important. This article addresses this issue using a representative survey, conducted between March and July 2023, of 391 Spanish journalists belonging to media outlets of different sizes and platforms from across the country. Journalists were asked about the perceived level of corruption in different public institutions, their level of institutional trust, and their degree of agreement with a variety of statements about corruption and the media. After performing a descriptive and inferential statistical analysis of the data collected, the results showed that journalists see corruption as one of the main problems in Spain, with a definitively higher incidence in political institutions compared with other public institutions. In addition, it was found that, the greater the perception of an institution’s corruption, the greater the journalists’ distrust of that institution, thus confirming the dysfunctional thesis of political scandals. Finally, it was revealed that, for journalists, the watchdog role is theoretically essential, but it is not carried out in practice owing to the commercial logic that has been embraced by the Spanish media

Social Capital, Trust, and Cultivation of Bioenergy Crops: Evidence from Germany and Greece

In the move towards bioeconomy, little is known about the contribution of factors such as social capital and trust in farmers’ motivation for adopting innovative practices like the cultivation of drought-tolerant bioenergy crops. Based on the broad notion of social capital, this research investigates the level of trust in institutions, cooperation, and the cultural value of farming in Greece and in Germany. Focus group discussions and interviews with farmers show similar levels of trust in institutions in both countries. Trust in cooperation positively related to community social cohesion in Germany, in contrast to the predominant mistrust of formal and informal forms of cooperation in Greece. In Germany, the cultural value of farming, urban “demands” impeding traditional small-scale farming, and their primary role in producing and guarding the rural environment tend to hinder the adoption of bioenergy crop cultivations. In Greece, the marginalization of farming results in an uncertain/ambiguous farming self-concept and, in turn, to an easier adoption of innovations such as the cultivation of bioenergy crops. All three dimensions are pivotal in agriculture, rural development, and energy transition, as they affect how people relate to institutions and to each other and organize and perceive themselves in the current representations of rurality.

The impact of risk perception and institutional trust on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in China

ABSTRACT Vaccination has become the primary means for citizens to prevent severe morbidity and mortality during the pandemic. However, vaccine hesitancy poses a major threat to global public health security. Based on the data from Chinese General Social Survey in 2021, this study aims to explore the socio-political aspects of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, focusing on the relationship between COVID-19 risk perceptions, institutional trust and vaccine hesitancy. Among the samples, 39.8% of the respondents exhibited COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, 48.9% had a high awareness of the risk of COVID-19, and 74.6% presented a high level of trust in institutions. The results showed that higher risk perception and institutional trust are negatively correlated with vaccine hesitancy (p < .001). Institutional trust had no statistically significant moderating effect on the association between risk perception and vaccine hesitancy, but the role of institutional trust in influencing vaccine hesitancy is more significant at a lower level of perceptions of COVID-19 risk. Furthermore, regional variations in the factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy were demonstrated in China. These findings have important implications for developing strategies to address vaccine hesitancy.

What factors matter in rent negotiations? Differences in views between landlords and retail trade tenants

ABSTRACT This paper investigates differences in the views of rent negotiating landlords and retail trade tenants regarding the importance of various factors in their rent negotiations. The paper explores whether these actors’ expectations are forward or backward looking as economic activity is increasing after the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, their different levels of trust in institutions, and in their counterpart as organisation and individual, are analysed. The study uses a web-based survey, gathering responses from some 100 landlords and tenants in the Swedish retail sector, and logit regressions. As demand increases after the pandemic, indicating a possibility to increase rents, the study finds that landlords are forward looking at this stage of the business cycle as regards industry developments, while tenants are backward looking or more focused on current contractual rents. Tenants focus more on vacancies and property value, which are set under pressure due to structural changes such as increased use of e-commerce and changes in working habits after the pandemic. Landlords show a higher level of trust in their counterpart as an individual than do tenants. This study contributes to an increased understanding of rent negotiations in two sectors – property and retail – that are facing structural challenges and difficulties in the wake of the pandemic.

Understanding tax payment behaviour in the West African Economic and Monetary Union: The role of perceived detection capacity and honesty

AbstractThe analysis of the key factors influencing the perception of tax compliance in WAEMU countries is the primary goal of this study. In particular, the study examines how intrinsic factors, such as honesty and the perception of the tax administration's capacity to detect fraud, affect perceptions of tax compliance in the WAEMU. Ordered probit regression was used to examine Afrobarometer data. According to the findings, honest citizens are more likely to be compliant, whereas a lack of good detection skills is negatively correlated with the perception of tax compliance. The results also reveal cross‐country differences driven by the levels of institutional trust, corruption and democracy.

The Influence of Social Media and Trust in Institutions on Digital Participation in Indonesia

The utilization of social media by state institutions holds great promise in fostering digital innovation. However, its current implementation remains limited to one-way information dissemination. Hence, this study aims to explore how social media can play a pivotal role in encouraging community digital participation, particularly concerning the adoption of digital rupiah. Additionally, it investigates the influence of institutional trust on digital participation, as higher public trust is presumed to facilitate greater engagement in digital initiatives. Employing a confirmatory quantitative approach, the research hypothesis was rigorously tested. A total of 300 responses were collected through an online survey conducted via Google Forms. These responses were subsequently subjected to analysis using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) via the SmartPLS 3.0 tool. The study's findings indicate a substantial positive effect of social media on digital participation. However, contrary to expectations, the level of trust in institutions was not found to have a significant effect on digital participation. These results shed light on the significance of social media as a catalyst for community involvement in digital initiatives, offering valuable insights for policymakers and institutions seeking to enhance digital adoption and innovation within the community.

Globalisation and trust in Europe between 2002 and 2018

Are institutional trust and interpersonal trust threatened by globalisation? For nineteen countries in Europe, using a fixed effects model for a panel data set relating globalisation to several economic and social macro variables, like income inequality and diversity, to average institutional and interpersonal trust derived from responses in European Social Surveys, we do not find any significant relation between the relatively moderate globalisation of the first two decades of the 21st century on average interpersonal and institutional trust. At the same time, occurrences of economic decline in a country are negatively related to institutional trust. GDP has a positive effect on both institutional and interpersonal.Combining the macro factors with the individual traits of respondents using pooled repeated cross-sectional data demonstrate the dominance of personal characteristics in individual levels of trust, with only institutional quality emerging as a macro variable which is significantly and positively related to trust, especially for the Socio-Economic Groups 3 to 7 (of the eight groups distinguished). Those who are born in the country exhibit higher levels of interpersonal trust, in particular in the higher SES groups 4–7, but show significantly lower institutional trust for the SES groups 0–2. Age is negatively related to institutional trust for all SES groups, but positively related to interpersonal trust for SES groups 4–7.These findings appear to imply that those who are concerned with the level of institutional trust in the population as a basic requirement for democracy in Europe should focus on the quality of institutions and not on globalisation.

Межпоколенный анализ взаимосвязи вовлеченности в интернет-пространство с институциональным доверием среди россиян

This study attempts to analyze the relationship between involvement in the Internet space and institutional trust among Russians of different generations. This study is based on data from Round 8 of the European Social Survey. The data was collected between 2016 and 2017. The sample for Russia includes 2,430 respondents. The analysis was carried out using the method of multiple linear regression. Our study showed that the nature of the relationship between Internet use and institutional trust varies depending on their generation. Young people (18–30 years old) are the most active Internet users and they also have the highest levels of institutional trust relative to other generations. Furthermore, an increase in the time spent on the Internet is associated with an increase in institutional distrust among young people. Representatives of the middle (31–44 years old) and older (45–80) ages use the Internet relatively less frequently and have lower levels of trust in institutions. At the same time, the involvement of these age groups in the Internet space is associated with higher levels of institutional trust. Understanding the nature of the relationship between institutional trust and Internet use is important for the government policy planning and strengthening institutional trust among Russians.

Attitude of Russians towards immigrants during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2021)

The objective of the author was to identify the presence, nature and factors of changes in the attitude of Russians towards immigrants during the coronavirus pandemic. It was revealed that the pandemic exacerbated the problems of natural population decline, and migration flows decreased, thereby reducing the compensation for natural decline by the influx of immigrants. On the one hand, this could increase the negative attitude of the host society towards immigrants, exacerbating the negative consequences of the coronavirus for society. On the other hand, the reduced “contact” with immigrants could switch the perception from immigrants to more acute problems, thereby making the attitude more neutral. For the empirical basis of the analysis the data of the European Social Survey for 2018 were used (for comparison with the pre-pandemic level of attitudes towards immigrants), as well as data from the Department for Comparative Political Studies of the Federal Scientific Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FCTAS RAS) for 2020–2021. The results of the analysis demonstrated that the assessment of the changes brought by immigrants to the economy, culture and everyday life of the country remains predominantly negative among Russians. The assessment of the consequences for the economy became more neutral during the study period, the perception of the consequences for the daily life of the country practically did not change, but the assessment of the consequences for culture became more negative. The regression analysis showed that the predictors of the negative attitude of Russians towards immigrants during the pandemic were: the perception of the acuteness of the problems of interethnic relations and the influx of visitors, the problem of increasing unemployment and the education of youth and adolescents, violation of the norms of public behaviour, as well as tension between men and women, the type of settlement (the larger it is, the more negative the attitude). Positive predictors turned out to be the level of institutional trust, age (the younger, the better the attitude), as well as awareness of the severity of the problem of population decline and low fertility in Russia.

Evaluating Target Audience Surveillance on Instagram in the Context of Public Relations Practices

The relationship between public relations and surveillance is a form of communication that reveals the interactions between today’s surveillance practices and companies’ sales strategies. The purpose of this article is to examine the relationships between demographic factors and individuals’ Instagram attitudes and behaviors. The article also looks at the relationships among levels of corporate trust, the sharing of private information on Instagram, individuals’ motivation to log in, the time spent daily on Instagram, and the number of accounts followed. Two-way ANOVA and post hoc tests have been used to examine with respect to demographics the differences between levels of institutional trust and levels at which relatively private information is sent. The relationships among level of institutional trust, level at which relatively private information is posted, motivation to log on, time spent daily on Instagram, and number of accounts followed have been examined using discriminant analysis. Individuals’ beliefs about protecting personal information and preventing unauthorized access have been determined to differ according to age group. Likewise, the level at which individuals post relatively private information on Instagram varies by age group. Also, a significant difference has been found for individuals’ level of institutional trust with their education and income levels. A significant relationship has been found for individuals’ institutional trust levels with their individual posting levels, motivation to log on, and time spent daily on Instagram. As a result, this study contributes to institutions that carry out public relations activities on Instagram and their target audiences with regard to recognizing their trust levels toward Instagram and institutions and their behaviors on Instagram.

Bundles of trust? Examining the relationships between media repertoires, institutional trust, and social contexts

AbstractHow the media influence the trust that citizens have in institutions such as politics and science seems more important than ever, given the decline of institutional trust in Western societies, and the increasingly diversified media landscape. This paper focuses on the relationship between media repertoires, institutional trust, and two socializing contexts (parents, social networks). Applying Latent Class Analysis, this paper examines (a) how parental socialization and social networks predict membership of media repertoires, and (b) how repertoires are associated with levels of institutional trust. Outcomes reveal five distinct media repertoires, among which the emerging type of cross-media news consumers. Membership of repertoires is associated with both parental socialization and social networks. There are clear differences in the levels of institutional trust among media repertoires: Popular media omnivores and quality news consumers have the most trust; the non-print-oriented the least.

Exploring the Factorial Structure and Criterion Validity of Institutional Trust in Slovakia

The present study aims to examine the dimensionality and criterion validity of the institutional trust construct in Slovakia using a comprehensive list of thirty-three public institutions. A representative sample of 600 Slovaks first reported their level of trust in institutions and then reported on their social trust, propensity to trust, dispositional trust, and trust radius measures. A holdout cross-validation method was used to evaluate the dimensionality of the institutional trust construct. Exploratory factor analysis yielded a six-factor solution, and the confirmatory factor analysis showed a good overall fit for the five-factor solution that included the following dimensions: political institutions, foreign institutions, social services institutions, order institutions, and media institutions. All five dimensions showed weak-to-moderate relationships with interpersonal trust measures. The present study highlights that delving into the dimensionality of institutional trust may contribute to the understanding of the phenomenon within specific geographical, political, societal, and historical, characteristics of the countries.

Variations in vaccination uptake: COVID-19 vaccination rates in Swedish municipalities.

Facing the threat of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines are important for limiting the spread and consequences of the pandemic. In this study, we provide a descriptive overview of the within-country variations of vaccine rates by examining to what extent voter turnout, support for an anti-establishment political party (Sweden Democrats), presence of first-generation immigrants, and Evangelical religiosity are associated with the within-country variation in vaccine uptake rates. We use official register data for municipality-level vaccine rates and municipality-level regressions with regional fixed effects. Our analyses show that vaccine uptake, on average, is lower in municipalities where the anti-establishment political party Sweden Democrats has higher vote shares and where a larger share of the population is first-generation immigrants. We discuss that potential explanations for these associations between vote shares for an anti-establishment party and shares of first-generation immigrants could be lower levels of trust in institutions and language barriers.

Attitudes towards Vaccines, Intent to Vaccinate and the Relationship with COVID-19 Vaccination Rates in Individuals with Schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia patients are at high risk of developing severe COVID-19 outcomes but recent evidence suggests that they are under-vaccinated. This study explored the role of potential attitudinal barriers by comparing schizophrenia patients with participants from the general population regarding COVID-19 vaccination rates, general attitudes towards vaccines, and willingness to take a COVID-19 vaccine. We conducted a cross-sectional study between April 2021 and October 2021. A total of 100 people with schizophrenia and 72 nonclinical controls were recruited. In our study, individuals with schizophrenia were under-vaccinated, despite similar general attitudes towards vaccination and higher willingness to be vaccinated against COVID-19 compared to nonclinical participants. In patients, negative attitudes toward vaccines were related to higher levels of negative psychotic symptoms and higher levels of paranoid ideation. As a whole, participants with more negative attitudes towards vaccines were less likely to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and had lower levels of trust in institutions. Vaccine hesitancy does not appear to be a major barrier for COVID-19 vaccine uptake amongst people with schizophrenia. This study suggests that disparities in COVID-19 vaccination rates in schizophrenia do not seem related to attitudinal but rather structural barriers.

Marketing Competence and Institutional Trust in Business

Trust in institutions can have important benefits for a country’s overall well-being. However, research on the specific factors that engender institutional trust in business remains limited. To this end, the authors conduct two studies to examine the impact of marketing competence on institutional trust in business. First, they compile a data set of trust in business perceptions among the general public from 26 countries from 2011–2017. Drawing on institutional theory and the capabilities-based view, the authors examine the effect of country-level business competence in marketing on a country’s level of institutional trust in business. Country-level panel data analysis indicates that the level of marketing competence of a country's businesses positively impacts public trust in business in the country. Results also indicate that this effect strengthens when confidence in government is low. Second, an experiment explores the mediating pathways by which marketing competence fosters this effect on public trust in business. Together, these findings provide new insight into the concept of institutional trust in business and showcase the role of marketing in creating such trust.

Corruption and life satisfaction: Evidence from a transition survey

AbstractFighting corruption cannot lie exclusively on appropriate formal institutions. It also requires social support and public engagement. Particularly in countries under institutional and economic transition. We embrace the recent perspective arguing that higher quality of life conditions makes people better citizens, more civically committed and more conformed to institutional rules. Accordingly, we study whether life satisfaction is a predictor of individuals' corruption aversion across 28 former socialist countries from Eastern Europe and Central Asia. We use data from the third wave of the Life in Transition Survey (2015–2016). 2SLS estimations suggest that individuals reporting higher scores of life satisfaction are more averse to corruption. Our results are robust to a series of sensitivity analyses. Additionally, we estimate predicted values of corruption aversion for different levels of institutional trust across low and high life satisfaction groups. We find that when institutional trust is very low, its impact on corruption aversion does not differ between life satisfaction groups. As institutional trust increases so does corruption aversion and this occurs even more amongst the group of respondents with high life satisfaction.

Public perceptions of the association between drug effectiveness and drug novelty in France during the COVID-19 pandemic

ObjectivesDuring the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, public debates overtly addressed the promises of new innovative drugs. Many of these debates pitted those who advocated for the development of new drugs by pharmaceutical companies against those who favored the repositioning of existing drugs. Our study explored perceptions of the association between drug novelty and effectiveness as well as perceptions of the role of the pharmaceutical industry in drug development.MethodsData were collected in January 2021 from a quota sample of the French population aged 18–75 years (n = 1,000) during the second round of the “Health Literacy Survey 2019” (HLS19).ResultsWe tested the hypothesis that individuals with a high level of familiarity with the health care system and those with a high level of trust in institutions are more likely to agree that new drugs are more effective than old ones and that drug development should be driven by the pharmaceutical industry. A quarter (25%) of respondents agreed that new drugs are always more effective than old ones. Agreement with this statement was stronger among respondents with a high level of familiarity with the health care system (as measured by the navigational health literacy score, OR 3.34 [2.13–5.24]). Respondents with a low level of trust in pharmaceutical companies or politicians were two times less likely to agree that new drugs are always more effective than old ones (OR 0.63 [0.42–0.95] and OR 0.68 [0.49–0.94], respectively). A high level of trust in pharmaceutical companies was reported by 42% of respondents, and 43% agreed that drug development should be driven by the pharmaceutical industry.ConclusionOur study shows that the perceived effectiveness of innovative drugs is associated with familiarity with the health care system and trust in institutions.

The staff of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Ukraine: in search of optimal ways of formation

It has been provided a comparative study of the national legal systems of some European Union member states with a high level of civil society confidence in the justice system, in terms of the formation of the prosecutor’s office as part of this system.&#x0D; It has been stated that in order to substantiate the timeliness and demand for measures of the current stage of reforming the prosecutor’s office in Ukraine, the criterion of the level of civil society trust in the prosecutor’s office is set, which fully meets the European standard of functioning of this institution in a democratic society.&#x0D; Taking into account the unsatisfactory state of functioning of the existing model of prosecution authorities in Ukraine, from the point of view of the level of support provided by society, there is a need to study the formation of prosecutors in foreign countries in order to gain successful experience in establishing this important institution in the state justice system.&#x0D; It has been highlighted the peculiarities of the legal policy on determining the qualification requirements for candidates for the position of prosecutor, selection procedures and professional training of prosecutors in the Member States of the European Union with a high level of civil society trust in institutions that provide due justice.&#x0D; It has been established that a high level of civil society trust to the justice system is, to a decisive extent, a projection of a certain legal policies of these states, aimed at methodological academic and special professional training of the judiciary staff, including prosecutors.&#x0D; It is concluded that simplification of the procedure for selection and training of prosecutors may not always indicate its improvement, as only a systematic change in the special training of candidates for the position of prosecutor and further training of incumbent prosecutors, taking into account best practices, can contribute to high level their professional competence as a prerequisite for increasing the level of trust of civil society in the prosecutor’s office as an institution as a whole.