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

Published date01 November 2021
AuthorScott E. Robinson,Joseph T. Ripberger,Kuhika Gupta,Jennifer A. Ross,Andrew S. Fox,Hank C. Jenkins‐Smith,Carol L. Silva
Date01 November 2021
DOIhttp://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

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