Existential insecurity and trust during the COVID-19 pandemic: The case of Germany
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Existential insecurity and trust during the COVID-19 pandemic : The case of Germany. / Delhey, Jan; Steckermeier, Leonie C.; Boehnke, Klaus et al.
In: Journal of Trust Research, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2023, p. 140-163.Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Existential insecurity and trust during the COVID-19 pandemic
T2 - The case of Germany
AU - Delhey, Jan
AU - Steckermeier, Leonie C.
AU - Boehnke, Klaus
AU - Deutsch, Franziska
AU - Eichhorn, Jan
AU - Kühnen, Ulrich
AU - Welzel, Christian
N1 - Funding Information: The data collection and research was part of the project ‘Values in Crisis: A Crisis of Values? Moral Values and Social Orientations under the Imprint of the Corona Pandemic’, funded by Volkswagen Foundation, grant number 99/127. We would like to thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions on earlier versions of this paper. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 Peter Ping Li.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - In many, but not all situations it is easier to be trusting from a position of security. This paper addresses trust’s relationship with perceived insecurities induced by the coronavirus pandemic. Looking at social trust (trust in strangers) and institutional trust (trust in the government and in the public health-care system), we explore whether individuals’ trust is negatively or positively associated with economic fears and health fears. Using panel data from Germany for 2020, 2021, and 2022 we find in cross-sectional analysis that institutional trust–but not social trust–is strengthened by health fears and weakened by economic fears. Longitudinal analysis shows that changes in health fears–but not in economic fears–increase social and institutional trust. Our results indicate that only health fears are threatening enough to suspend the otherwise tight-knit syndrome of security and trust.
AB - In many, but not all situations it is easier to be trusting from a position of security. This paper addresses trust’s relationship with perceived insecurities induced by the coronavirus pandemic. Looking at social trust (trust in strangers) and institutional trust (trust in the government and in the public health-care system), we explore whether individuals’ trust is negatively or positively associated with economic fears and health fears. Using panel data from Germany for 2020, 2021, and 2022 we find in cross-sectional analysis that institutional trust–but not social trust–is strengthened by health fears and weakened by economic fears. Longitudinal analysis shows that changes in health fears–but not in economic fears–increase social and institutional trust. Our results indicate that only health fears are threatening enough to suspend the otherwise tight-knit syndrome of security and trust.
KW - COVID-19
KW - economic fears
KW - existential insecurity
KW - health fears
KW - social trust
KW - trust in the government
KW - trust in the health-care system
KW - Politics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85162122152&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/c24e21b8-817a-396e-a5c6-44cfc5ad049d/
U2 - 10.1080/21515581.2023.2223184
DO - 10.1080/21515581.2023.2223184
M3 - Journal articles
AN - SCOPUS:85162122152
VL - 13
SP - 140
EP - 163
JO - Journal of Trust Research
JF - Journal of Trust Research
SN - 2151-5581
IS - 2
ER -