Political Trust in Predicting Readiness to Comply with Governmental Restrictions During COVID-19 Pandemic

Political Trust in Predicting Readiness to Comply with Governmental Restrictions During COVID-19 Pandemic [PDF]

Ivars Austers, Girts Dimdins, Veronika Leja, Viktorija Gaina
University of Latvia, Latvia

Abstract: In the present paper, we try to answer the question of what makes a citizen to comply to health behaviour guidelines by comparing trust in government and past behaviour as predictors of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Through an online study of 316 respondents, we found that the judgment of government (indirectly, in terms of positive evaluation of government actions during COVID-19) does play an important role in the ratings of the extent to which one will follow restrictions during the pandemic in the future. This variable seems to be a central one in terms of uniting different variables, which predict the restriction following behaviour: an evaluation of the government’s competence, benevolence, integrity, general trust in government during the COVID-19, the perceived risk of government actions concerning oneself and one’s family, as well as with respect to the evaluation of future economic prospects.
Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, political trust, risk-mitigating behaviour.

https://doi.org/10.22364/htqe.2021.06

In: Human, Technologies and Quality of Education, 2021 = Cilvēks, tehnoloģijas un izglītības kvalitāte, 2021
Rīga, University of Latvia, 2021. 1148 p. Ed. L. Daniela
https://doi.org/10.22364/htqe.2021
ISBN 978-9934-18-735-3