ABSTRACT

In many, but not all situations it is easier to be trusting from a position of security. This paper addresses trust’s relationship with perceived insecurities induced by the coronavirus pandemic. Looking at social trust (trust in strangers) and institutional trust (trust in the government and in the public health-care system), we explore whether individuals’ trust is negatively or positively associated with economic fears and health fears. Using panel data from Germany for 2020, 2021, and 2022 we find in cross-sectional analysis that institutional trust – but not social trust – is strengthened by health fears and weakened by economic fears. Longitudinal analysis shows that changes in health fears – but not in economic fears – increase social and institutional trust. Our results indicate that only health fears are threatening enough to suspend the otherwise tight-knit syndrome of security and trust.

摘要

在许多情况下（但并非所有情况），从安全的角度更容易获得信任。本文讨论了信任与冠状病毒大流行引起的不安全感之间的关系。通过考察社会信任（对陌生人的信任）和机构信任（对政府和公共医疗保健系统的信任），我们探讨了个人信任与经济恐惧和健康恐惧是否呈负相关或正相关。使用德国 2020 年、2021 年和 2022 年的面板数据，我们在横断面分析中发现，机构信任（而非社会信任）因健康担忧而增强，因经济担忧而减弱。纵向分析表明，健康担忧的变化（而不是经济担忧的变化）会增加社会和机构的信任。