Social Distrust Research Articles

The role of values and involvement of young people in various forms of activity in the preference of the online/offline environment

The paper analyzes the role of values and involvement of young people in various forms of social activity in the preference of online or online environment. The relevance of such a research design is related to the need to determine the determinants of the preference for the environment of social activity in a situation of total digitalization of society. The purpose of the study is to analyze the role of values and realized forms of social activity of young people in the preference of the online/offline environment. The study involved 442 people, average age M = 21.82; SD = 6.23 (men — 33.5 %, women — 64.5 %). We have suggested that the preference for an online or offline environment may be due to involvement in various forms of activity and values, as well as their joint effect. The design of the study assumed the use of the regression method and the method of structural modeling. The following techniques were used. To identify the degree of involvement in various forms of activity, a modified questionnaire was used, built according to the type of direct scaling (Shamionov et al.), the analysis of values was carried out using the Schwartz’s technique “Portrait value questionnaire”, the degree of trust was revealed using the technique “Scale of social trust” by I. Yu. Leonova and I. N. Leonova. The determining role of the Internet-network and Internet search, leisure and subcultural (positive) and religious and sports and wellness (negative) has been established activity in preference to the online environment; sports and recreation, family, and household, cultural and mass, Internet search (positive) and protest (negative) activity in the offline environment preferences. The values of stimulation, power-dominance (positive) and tradition (negative) determine the preference for the online environment, and independence-actions, stimulation, tradition (positive) and interpersonal conformity (negative) — the preference for the offline environment. The joint effect of values and involvement in different forms of activity in the preference of the online/offline environment is revealed. The preference of the online environment in the implementation of social activity is associated with social distrust. The research results can be used to develop programs to balance the preferences of the activity environment.

Perfect Storm for Epistemic Injustice

Over the past decade, feminist philosophers have gone a long way toward identifying and explaining the phenomenon that has come to be known as epistemic injustice. Epistemic injustice is injustice occurring within the domain of knowledge (e.g., knowledge production and transmission), which typically impacts structurally marginalized social groups. In this paper, we argue that, as they currently work, algorithms on social media exacerbate the problem of epistemic injustice and related problems of social distrust. In other words, we argue that algorithms on social media recreate and reify the conditions that lead to some groups being systematically denied the full status of knowers, thereby corrupting the epistemic terrain and, with it, systems of social trust and cooperation. We argue that algorithms do this in two ways—namely, via what we are calling algorithmic targeting and algorithmic sorting.

From a Challenge to an Opportunity: Sustainability and the “Dark Side” of Social Capital in Paros, Greece

The role of social capital for socio-ecological systems is undisputed. While fostering cooperation in some communities, however, social capital can also lead to tight social control and distrust towards outsiders and new practices, contributing to the persistence of undesirable, unsustainable practices. This paper explores the challenges emerging from the “dark side” of social capital for sustainability efforts in socio-ecological systems, raising the question how they can be addressed and overcome. It focuses on the case of Paros, Greece, where decades of mass tourism and conventional agriculture have put a heavy burden on the socio-ecological system. In the aftermath of the 2008-2011 crisis, returnees and newcomers leaving mainland Greece brought new ideas on how to reconcile the island's economy, ecology, and society with one another. Interviews reveal how the specifics of social capital in Paros posed structural, cognitive, and relational challenges to their projects. Surprisingly, though, those challenges could be turned into opportunities to embed new projects on the island. Promoting sustainability in socio-ecological systems may thus be less a matter of creating more social capital, but one of tailoring interventions to the specific type of social capital available.

Controversy and consensus in the design of a consent-based siting process for radioactive waste

Crafting a successful plan to store nuclear waste in the United States from commercial nuclear reactors and defense-related activities has been stymied by multiple technical, social, and political challenges. Recent focus has returned to the role of consent to site a deep geologic repository and interim storage facilities. However, what “consent” means has been left quite vague. We report on an empirical investigation using Q method to identify perspectives about how a consent-based siting process should be designed for one or more deep geologic repositories. We recruited twelve individuals deeply engaged with policy and regulatory questions associated with managing nuclear waste in the United States. Results reveal four perspectives: get to yes expediently, seek acceptance by gaining trust, promote inclusion and transparency for informed community choice, and develop legitimacy for the process and outcomes. Each perspective includes features meant to ensure that core concepts of consent are addressed in a process to site one or more deep geologic repositories: self-determination, understanding, and voluntariness. We discuss how perspectives emphasize them in different ways. We also highlight how perspectives reveal preferences for responding to three challenges raised by the socio-political context: what is the scope of the problem to be addressed, how the process can be protected from external pressure, and how to proceed in a context of social distrust. The perspectives suggest many areas of agreement about how a consent-based process should be designed. However, key differences are also revealed which pose a significant challenge for those that will be responsible for designing a process that achieves the promise of consent.

A Dilemma of Self-interest vs. Ethical Responsibilities in Political Insider Trading.

Political insider trading has brought substantial attention to ethical considerations in the academic literature. While the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act prohibits members of Congress and their staff from leveraging non-public information to make investment decisions, political insider trading still prevails. We discuss political ethics and social contract theory to re-engage the debate on whether political insider trading is unethical and raises the issues of conflict of interest and social distrust. Empirically, using a novel measure of information risk, we find that senator trades are associated with substantially high levels of information asymmetry. Moreover, based on inside political information, senators earn significant market-adjusted returns (4.9% over 3 months). Thus, our results do not support the prediction made by social contract theory and thereby provide a potential resolution to the ongoing debate on banning stock trading for members of Congress.

Determinants of support for social integration in South Africa: The roles of race relations, social distrust, and racial identification

AbstractSouth Africa is divided along race lines and this has made social integration difficult to achieve in the nation. The aspiration for the rainbow nation since the end of apartheid has been a country united in its diversity. Research evidence shows that interracial trust and interaction are still very low in the nation. This study set out to examine the determinants of support for social integration in South Africa. The variables of perceived improvement in race relations, social distrust, and racial identification were examined. Data were sourced from the South African Social Attitudes Survey 2017. Participants were 2,946 men (38.9%) and women (61.1%) with the age range of 16 to 99 years. Data analysis showed that perceived improvement in race relations, social distrust, and racial identification were all associated with increased support for social integration. However, a low level of social distrust provides the best outcome for support for social integration. Equally, identifying with one's racial group is likely to be beneficial for increasing social contact between groups. Findings were discussed based on the peculiarity of South African society and existing literature. The implication of the findings for policies and programmes to facilitate social contact and social cohesion was emphasised. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.

Moralizing the COVID-19 Pandemic: Self-Interest Predicts Moral Condemnation of Other's Compliance, Distancing, and Vaccination.

The emergence of the novel coronavirus has put societies under tremendous pressure to instigate massive and rapid behavior change. Throughout history, an effective strategy to facilitate novel behaviors has been to morally condemn those who do not behave in an appropriate way. Accordingly, here, we investigate if complying with the advice of health authorities—for example, to physically distance or vaccinate—has emerged as a moralized issue during the COVID‐19 pandemic. In Study 1, we rely on data (N = 94K) from quota‐sampled rolling cross‐sectional online surveys from eight countries (Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, Hungary, the United Kingdom, and the United States). We find that large majorities find it justified to condemn those who do not keep a distance to others in public and around half of respondents blame ordinary citizens for the severity of the pandemic. Furthermore, we identify the most important predictors of condemnation to be behavior change and personal concern, while institutional trust and social distrust also play large but less consistent roles. Study 2 offers a registered replication of our findings on a representative sample of Britons (N = 1.5K). It shows that both moralization and condemnation of both vaccination and general compliance are best predicted by self‐interested considerations.

Building patients’ trust in psychologists in online mental health communities

Sufferers’ mental illnesses experience changes in communication, cognition, and behavior, exposing differences in social behavior and relationships. Many who suffer from mental health problems notice that the reduced communication ability leads to social inclusion and distrust of others. Online Mental Health Communities (OMHCs) facilitate a new means of communication between patients and physicians. Based on the trust source credibility framework, trust transitivity theory, social resources and physician-patient interactions, this study aims to evaluate the factors that influence patients’ trust in OMHCs. We crawled the data from Haodf.com, the leading healthcare community platform in China, to study the factors that influence patients’ trust using the ordinary least squares regression method. 725 psychologists’ records were collected on 19 November, 2019, 20 December, 2019, and 20 May, 2020. Compared with face-to-face physician appointments, Chief Physicians are more likely to gain patients’ initial trust online. Further, psychologists’ integrity, online reputation, and group size have significant positive impact on the initial trust of patients. Similarly, patients’ online initial trust and efforts have significantly positive influences on their continuous trust online. To improve relationships between physicians and patients, physicians must strengthen their clinical abilities and be honest with patients. The findings of this study provide insights into the factors that influence patients’ trust in OMHCs.

Political rationalities related to the public participation as exemplified by the Warsaw #housing2030 project

Abstract This article analyses political rationalities positioning residents in decision-making in the context of #housing2030 project in Warsaw, Poland. The paper applies a governmental approach, a policy analysis tool reconstructed (on the ground of existing studies) by Greg Marston and Catherine McDonald (2006). As reported in the article, two political rationalities were identified: (1) public participation designed in the context of local communities and neighbourhoods and (2) public (tenant) participation designed in the context of neoliberal governance in housing. It was found that in the case of the #housing2030 project, the contradiction of political rationalities leads to an incoherent vision of public participation in housing policymaking and to some residents (social tenants) being treated differently. The article argues that this contributes to the micro-practices of social scepticism and distrust on the part of tenant organisations and urban movements towards the #housing2030 project.

The impact of digital interaction on the transformations of socio-economic and educational processes in Russian society

In contemporary Russian society, the development of digitalization is tied with the battle against the detrimental effects of COVID-19. In the face of the spread of the infection transmitted primarily through direct human interaction, the need to change the format of this interaction to digital has risen. The dynamics of digitalization were boosted, leading to several problems. There surfaced the issues of technical difficulties, the lack of digital literacy on the part of individual staff members in organizations and some social groups and individuals (primarily those in the socially vulnerable population groups), the limitations of direct interpersonal interaction, the redundancy of digital information, emotional fatigue from having to work and learn only remotely, the cybersecurity of online interactions, a significant increase in digital control over citizens’ lives, the risks of social and psychological tension and distrust of digitalization, technophobia, inability to rationally apply the successes of scientific and technological advancement to improve personal and social well-being.

Subjectivity Analysis of Underground Incinerators: Focus on Academic and Industry Experts

Recently, incinerators have been shifted to underground complexes because of concerns regarding environmental pollution and declining land prices. In Korea, an underground waste incinerator has been built for the first time, with additional construction being expected in the near future. Therefore, a perception survey was conducted to acquire responses from South Korean experts regarding the impact of underground complex incinerators. The Q-methodology was used in the survey to examine various viewpoints. Academicians showed concerns regarding environmental effects of ground incinerators, and environmental and economic effects of underground complex incinerators; conversely, industrialists were concerned about civil complaints and administrative processing, indicating that the academicians were more concerned about scientific issues, whereas the industrialists were more concerned about democratic issues. Furthermore, both groups expressed concerns regarding land value and civil complaints of ground incinerators, safety issues and resultant social distrust of underground incinerators. The findings suggest that, to address the safety issues involving underground incinerator construction, governance by local experts is required for a holistic evaluation of environmental issues and economic feasibility of underground incinerators. To establish a link between science and democracy, measures for transparently sharing information are necessary.

Integrating social influence modeling and user modeling for trust prediction in signed networks

Trust and distrust between online users play an important role in social network applications, especially in the security domain. For example, trust information can enhance social recommendation and distrust information can be used for fraud detection. However, trust prediction is challenging due to the existence and imbalance of the three kinds of social status in signed social networks (i.e., trust, distrust and no-relation). Furthermore, there are a variety types of no-relation status in reality, e.g., strangers and frenemies, which cannot be well distinguished from the other social status by existing approaches. In this paper, we propose a novel Framework of Integrating both Latent and Explicit features (FILE), to better deal with the no-relation status and hence improve the overall trust/distrust prediction performance. In particular, we design two latent features to model user's intrinsic personality. Meanwhile, we design explicit features by extending social theories, to model the external social influence from mutual neighbors. The proposed model learns the features for each user via matrix factorization with a specially designed ranking-oriented loss function. Experimental results demonstrate the superior of our approach over the state-of-the-art methods, and the effectiveness of our approach in security applications. Our work sheds light on trust prediction in signed networks as well as security applications like fraud detection.

A Distinct Society? Understanding Social Distrust in Quebec

AbstractFollowing public debates on the topic of trust in Quebec, this article examines the alleged social capital differential between Quebec and the rest of Canada. The literature has found lower levels of generalized trust in Quebec, but explanations offered are diverse and conjectural, with historical, sociological and political factors all in contention. We test contextual and compositional influences, including cohort differences, language and linguistic ability, religion, ethnicity, and neighbourhood-level measures of diversity, using pooled cross-sectional data from the Canadian General Social Survey (2003, 2008 and 2013) linked with precise measures of neighbourhood-level ethnic and linguistic diversity drawn from the Canadian census. We identify those Quebecers who have low levels of trust and those who more closely resemble their counterparts in the rest of Canada. We find that individual linguistic ability and linguistic heterogeneity of the neighbourhood are important correlates of trust and that among francophone populations, social distrust is found most in unilingual homogenous communities.

Exposure to television and support for restrictive immigration policies in the midst of the immigration crisis: A cross‐national comparison

AbstractObjectiveThis study explored associations between television exposure and public support for restrictive immigration policies in Europe, distinguishing general television exposure from exposure to television news. We explored explanations of generalized social distrust and perceived ethnic threat and, moreover, acknowledged cross‐national variation in asylum applicants.MethodsWe applied multi‐level regression analyses using the European Social Survey (2014–2015), covering 19 countries (n = 29.161).ResultsGeneral television exposure and support for restrictive immigration policies related positively, whereas exposure to television news related negatively to these policy preferences. Furthermore, both generalized social distrust and perceived ethnic threat mediated the links between both forms of exposure and these preferences. An increase in the number of asylum applicants strengthened the positive relationship between general television exposure and these policy preferences.ConclusionsThis study provides new insights into the role of individual and national factors for support for restrictive immigration policies from a contemporary and cross‐national perspective.

On the legal feignfullness in the sanitary and epidemiological sphere against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic

Sanitary and epidemiological processes against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic have confirmed the prevalence of legal feignfullness in Russia. For a long time, legal feignfullness has been officially mentioned only in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and has been assessed by the state and society quite neutrally. The assessment has not changed much even with the recent introduction of administrative responsibility for feigned accounting, although the nominally in this branch of law assessment of legal feignfullness has become negative. Against the background of anti-COVID sanitary and epidemiological measures, the neutral attitude of society to legal feignfullness changed to a negative one and coincided with administrative and legal negative assessment of legal feignfullness. This makes it topical to eliminate the negative consequences of legal feignfullness in the sanitary and epidemiological sphere; to determine the legal means of blocking conflict-causing factors; to prevent new manifestations of legal feignfullness. It is revealed that the high alert mode is largely feigned, covers up a “hybridˮ regime of a dubious legal nature with an unreasonable amount of legal restrictions and insufficient state guarantees. The interpretation of the Presidium of the Supreme Court worsens, in comparison with the law, the legal fate of persons brought to justice for violating the “anti-COVIDˮ rules. All this generates social tension and distrust of the anti-pandemic measures of the state as feigned ones. The article contains recommendations for neutralising the consequences of legal feignfullness. In addition, the increase in social tension against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic further demonstrated the existence of feigned legal phenomena of a general social nature, in particular, in the areas of federalism, legality, as well as solidarity of the state and society.

Social Distrust Impact Analysis: Political Overview Competition Law

The purpose of this research is to reveal the contents of civil law regarding business competition and social lessons from the prohibition of unfair business competition (monopoly and other fraud) contained in Indonesian government policies. The research method used is qualitative content analysis with a normative juridical approach using the keyword 'Policy related to business competition.' The results of this study indicate two findings. First, Law No. 5/1999 concerning the Prohibition of Monopolistic Practices and Unfair Business Competition is an implementation of the politics of business competition law in Indonesia. In principle, the politics of business competition law in Indonesia depends on the political will of the House of Representatives (DPR) as the legislative body together with the Government as the executive in making laws. Because Law Number 5 of 1999 concerning the Prohibition of Monopolistic Practices and Unfair Business Competition is not yet effective enough in creating fair business competition in Indonesia because, in substance, the Law still contains weaknesses in several articles that make the performance of the Business Competition Supervisory. The commission is not maximal. Second, government policies contained in the Civil Code, KUHP, Law no. 5 of 1984 concerning Provisions for Main Industries, Law no. 8/1995 concerning Capital Market, Law no. 9 of 1995 concerning Small Businesses, and Law No. 36 of Telecommunications provide important lessons regarding the prohibition of monopolies and fraudulent practices that can hinder the economy and equitable social welfare. The expected implication is that social learning from government policies in the field of law regarding deregulation, investment, and other policies aimed at supporting business competition can promote sustainable development, particularly in industry, small businesses, capital markets, and telecommunications.

The present and future of the Korean Medical Practice Review Authority

Background: The Korean Medical Association (KMA) has been working on medical appraisals for the last 30 years. In 2019, the Korean Medical Practice Review Authority (KMPRA) was established to systematically promote medical appraisal. In addition, regulations related to medical appraisals were amended, professional committees of KMPRA established, and medical case management programs developed. This study reviews the history, present challenges, and the future of KMPRA.Current Concepts: The efforts made by KMA for the development of KMPRA have provided evidence of the excellence of medical appraisal system, with a highly professional, fast, and transparent medical practice review system. Nevertheless, KMPRA has not completely resolved the social distrust of fairness and the quickness of medical appraisals. It is necessary to identify the obstacles that exist in the current appraisal system for the continued development of KMPRA. Currently, KMPRA faces several challenges, such as lack of independence, financial constraints, dichotomized process of medical appraisal, and insufficient administrative manpower, in the process of handling thousands of requested cases. To improve the level of expertise of the professional medical appraisal system, independence, fairness, and speed of its process, KMPRA requires more attention and support from KMA and other major professional medical organizations.Discussion and Conclusion: KMPRA is committed to fulfilling the social responsibility of fair medical appraisal, and it will ultimately contribute to resolving social conflicts derived from medical services and further improving trust relationships with the public.

Return to Campus? Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic?

A descriptive research design was employed at a major university, Kennesaw State University, during the Fall 2020 semester to explore how the campus community felt about the cleanliness and safety in the campus environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research team consisted of a full-time industrial engineering professor and two senior-level industrial engineering students. Results reveal that the majority of respondents felt a general sense of feeling safe when returning to campus during Fall 2020. The majority respondents had also received their KSU-branded cloth face mask by the time they took the survey. Half of the respondents indicated a feeling that KSU had taken appropriate steps to ensure multiple daily cleanings of high-traffic areas and nearly half of the respondents felt that high-touch surfaces were being cleaned frequently enough to prevent COVID-19 from spreading. Finally, other concerns shared by respondents include changes in stress level, worry, limited student interaction, social distancing issues, poor planning, and distrust of the KSU administration.

Testing a Moderated Mediation Model of Social Withdrawal and Intimacy: The Roles of Interpersonal Distrust and Retrospective Bullying Victimization

Given that social withdrawal has been consistently linked to intimacy, an examination of the mediating effect of interpersonal distrust on the relationship between social withdrawal and intimacy could offer potential insights into a possible explanatory mechanism. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate interpersonal distrust as a mediator of the relationship between social withdrawal and intimacy, and whether retrospective bullying victimization moderates this mediation. Participants included 160 university students who completed measures of social withdrawal, interpersonal distrust, intimacy, and retrospective bullying victimization. Results indicated that interpersonal distrust mediated the relationship between social withdrawal and intimacy. Retrospective bullying victimization in primary school, however, did not moderate the mediation model. In light of these findings, appropriate implications and suggestions for interventions are discussed.

Modeling Social Media Effects on Political Distrust in Lebanon

The present study aims to examine the indirect effects of social media on political distrust among Lebanese citizens using data based on the Arab Barometer Wave V. The Arab Barometer Wave V was obtained in 2018-2019 via which 2,400 Lebanese citizens were surveyed. Using the Preacher and Hayes Bootstrapping method, the results of the test the hypotheses indicate that, firstly, social media has a positive effect on citizens’ political distrust and causes the increase in their level of distrust in political institutions with the mediator variables corruption perception and poor government performance; and secondly, the results show that although the lack of guaranteed freedoms has a positive effect on increasing political distrust in society, this variable cannot mediate the relationship between social media and political distrust among Lebanese citizens.