Trust in Government Actions During the COVID-19 Crisis

The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic puts countries and their governments in an unprecedented situation. Strong countermeasures have been implemented in most places, but how much do people trust their governments in handling this crisis? Using data from a worldwide survey, conducted between March 20th and April 22nd, 2020, with more than 100,000 participants, we study people's perceptions of government reactions in 57 countries. We find that media freedom reduces government trust directly as well as indirectly via a more negative assessment of government reactions as either insufficient or too strict. Higher level of education is associated with higher government trust and lower tendency to judge government reactions as too extreme. We also find different predictors of perceived insufficient reactions vs. too-extreme reactions. In particular, number of COVID-19 deaths significantly predicts perceived insufficient reactions but is not related to perceived too-extreme reactions. Further survey evidence suggests that conspiracy theory believers tend to perceive government countermeasures as too strict.

Automated summary

The global COVID-19 pandemic has put countries and their governments in unprecedented situations. Data from a worldwide survey conducted between March 20th and April 22nd, 2020, with over 100,000 participants, shows that media freedom directly reduces government trust and affects perceptions of government reactions. Higher education levels are associated with higher government trust and less extreme judgment of government reactions. Different predictors were found for perceived insufficient government reactions compared to perceived too-extreme reactions. Additionally, conspiracy theory believers tend to view government countermeasures as too strict.