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Research Article
Open Access

Americans’ Trust in Government and Health Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Elizabeth Suhay, Aparna Soni, Claudia Persico, Dave E. Marcotte
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences December 2022, 8 (8) 221-244; DOI: https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2022.8.8.10
Elizabeth Suhay
aAssociate professor in the Department of Government, School of Public Affairs, American University, United States
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Aparna Soni
bAssistant professor in the Department of Public Administration and Policy, School of Public Affairs, American University, United States
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Claudia Persico
cAssistant professor in the Department of Public Administration and Policy, School of Public Affairs, American University, United States
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Dave E. Marcotte
dProfessor in the Department of Public Administration and Policy, School of Public Affairs, American University, United States
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Abstract

The importance of trust in government amid health emergencies has become apparent, especially given its impact on health behavior. Yet scholars often treat trust simplistically, measuring it at one point in time and in a unidimensional way. We use a unique series of surveys carried out during the first year of the pandemic to examine changing trust in different government actors over time and then link relative trust to compliance with expert-recommended health behaviors. We find that trust in government declined during this period, with especially large declines for federal and state relative to local government. We find somewhat steeper declines among women, Black Americans, the less educated, and Republicans. Finally, we find that trust in state governments and local health officials was positively associated with protective health behaviors, especially among Republicans, and that trust in the federal government was associated with a lower likelihood of such behaviors.

  • trust in government
  • COVID-19 pandemic
  • health behavior
  • party polarization
  • © 2022 Russell Sage Foundation. Suhay, Elizabeth, Aparna Soni, Claudia Persico, and Dave E. Marcotte. 2022. “Americans’ Trust in Government and Health Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 8(8): 221–44. DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2022.8.8.10. We gratefully acknowledge funding from the National Science Foundation (Award #2037331). Austin Bartola and Alexandra Rakus provided excellent research assistance. Direct correspondence to: Elizabeth Suhay, at suhay{at}american.edu, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC 20016, United States.

Open Access Policy: RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences is an open access journal. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences: 8 (8)
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
Vol. 8, Issue 8
1 Dec 2022
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Americans’ Trust in Government and Health Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Elizabeth Suhay, Aparna Soni, Claudia Persico, Dave E. Marcotte
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences Dec 2022, 8 (8) 221-244; DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2022.8.8.10

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Americans’ Trust in Government and Health Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Elizabeth Suhay, Aparna Soni, Claudia Persico, Dave E. Marcotte
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences Dec 2022, 8 (8) 221-244; DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2022.8.8.10
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  • trust in government
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  • health behavior
  • party polarization

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