The Relevance and Operations of Political Trust in the COVID‐19 Pandemic

• Published date: 01 November 2021
• Author: Scott E. Robinson,Joseph T. Ripberger,Kuhika Gupta,Jennifer A. Ross,Andrew S. Fox,Hank C. Jenkins‐Smith,Carol L. Silva
• Date: 01 November 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13333

1110 Public Administration Review • November | D ecember 2 021

Abstract: As the United States is at historic lows of trust in government, various agencies are seeking to convince

members of the public to take key protective actions and to support novel policy actions intended to reduce the spread

of COVID-19. This article assesses the status of trust in key organizations relevant to pandemic information based on

a national survey of residents of the United States. First, the article illustrates the variations in trust placed in various

agencies—local to global agencies and governmental and private sector organizations. Second, the analysis reveals

considerable variances in trust in specific organizations based on party identification. Finally, the results indicate that

trust is important as it is related to the intention to adopt personal protective actions and support for key public policies.

Practitioner Points

• Key actors possess a “trust premium” that can facilitate communication in a crisis—particularly expert and

local actors.

• This trust is still filtered through partisanship requiring a diverse set of actors to disseminate information.

• Receiving information from trusted sources may influence relevant, protective behaviors among the public,

as well as support for policies that promote these behaviors.

In early April of 2020, the world was clamoring for

more information about the spread of pandemic

SARS-COV-2—typically referred to as COVID-

19.1 Hungry for information, people clung to their

mobile devices and tuned in to news programs seeking

to better understand the progress of the pandemic.

Governments around the world hoped to utilize the

careful attention of the public by providing accurate

and useful information on appropriate protective

actions (such as self-isolation, mask wearing, etc.).

This coronavirus pandemic is only the most recent

example—albeit a quite dramatic example—of a

situation in which the government is seeking to

inform the public. In more routine operations, the

government seeks to provide a variety of information

to the public ranging from instructions for submitting

income taxes to upcoming road closures. These

typical examples are relatively simple. Public managers

face more complexity as they seek to disseminate

information during events featuring contestation.

With contestation, public managers face the challenge

of persuading the public that the information being

provided is accurate and useful.

This article provides a view of the landscape for

public managers seeking to communicate during

the COVID-19 crisis. It begins with a review of the

literature on trust in government—from its simple,

generalized origins to recent research on the trust in

specific organizations. The article then reports from

a recent survey of the U.S. public’s trust in various

actors playing a meaningful role in communicating

about COVID-19. The article then turns to an

illustration of how partisanship affects reported trust.

Finally, the results suggest that maintaining trust is

related to changes in protective behaviors relevant to

prevent the spread of pandemic influenza and support

for policies combating the pandemic.

Trust and Administrative Agencies:

AReview

Scholars have investigated trust in government for

years, even decades if one takes a broad view. Trust is

implicated in the classic question of how governments

retain legitimacy. For this reason, scholarly attention

to trust in government has been a subject of near-

constant attention, although often at a relatively low

level of emphasis.

This review will focus on the literature related to trust

in government and trust in administrative agencies as

attitudes held by the general public. For this reason,

we will not discuss the robust literature regarding

The Relevance and Operations of Political Trust in the

COVID-19 Pandemic

Scott E. Robinson

Joseph T. Ripberger

Kuhika Gupta

Jennifer A. Ross

Andrew S. Fox

Hank C. Jenkins-Smith

Carol L. Silva

University of Oklahoma

Hank Jenkins-Smith is a George Lynn

Cross Research Professor in the University of

Oklahoma Department of Political Science,

specializing in the study of public policy. He is

also a Co-Director of the National Institute for

Risk & Resilience.

Email: hjsmith@ou.edu

Carol L. Silva is a Professor of Political

Science and Director of the Center for Risk

and Crisis Management at the University of

Oklahoma. Her research focuses on issues of

risk analysis, contingency value analysis and

environmental policy.

Email: clsilva@ou.edu

Research Article

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 81, Iss. 6, pp. 1110–1119. © 2021 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13333.

Scott E. Robinson is a Professor and

Bellmon Chair of Public Service at the

University of Oklahoma. His research focuses

on punctuated equilibrium processes of policy

change and emergency management. Recent

projects have included a large-scale study of

evacuation management, survey research on

risk perception and trust in government, and

risk communication.

Email: scott.e.robinson@ou.edul

Joe Ripberger is an Assistant Professor

of Political Science and the Deputy Director

for Research at the University of Oklahoma’s

National Institute for Risk and Resilience. His

research focuses on how people use information

to make decisions involving risk.

Email: jtr@ou.edu

Kuhika Gupta is a Research Scientist at the

National Institute for Risk and Resilience at the

University of Oklahoma. Her research focuses

on the role of institutions, advocacy coalitions,

narratives, and public perceptions in the policy

process across a wide range of domains including

energy, climate, and security.

Email: kuhikagupta@ou.edu

Jennifer A. Ross is the Coordinator of

Public and Community Health Programs,

Norman Campus and an Assistant Professor

at the University of Oklahoma. Her research

focuses on the health effects of neurotoxic

exposures.

Email: jenross@ou.edu

Andrew S. Fox is a Research Scientist at

the National Institute for Risk and Resilience

at the University of Oklahoma. He studies the

influence of emerging technologies on society

and politics, with a particular emphasis on the

role of networks, the policy process, risk, and

governance across an array of topics that include

technology, energy, and security.

Email: asfox@ou.edu