THE DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL TRUST DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A SOCIOECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE ON TRAJECTORIES
Abstract
Crises have the potential to significantly impact social relationships and alter people's perceptions of others. Social trust, which encompasses beliefs in the honesty, integrity, and reliability of individuals, plays a crucial role in maintaining a well-functioning society and can lead to various positive outcomes such as wealth, happiness, and health. Trust becomes particularly crucial during times of crisis as it facilitates collective action and helps mitigate the negative effects of crises on mental health. However, the effect of crises on trust remains a topic of debate.
This study aims to shed light on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social trust by examining three distinct perspectives: the crisis-to-negative experiences model, the crisis-to-solidarity perspective, and the stability perspective. Prior research on the changing pattern of trust during the pandemic has yielded mixed results, with some studies reporting an increase in trust and others indicating a decline.
To address this inconsistency, this paper adopts a person-centered mixture approach and focuses on two major forms of trust—generalized trust and neighborhood trust—during the COVID-19 pandemic. Longitudinal latent class analysis is employed to identify trajectories of change in trust among individuals with different socioeconomic positions. The analysis utilizes data from multiple waves of national samples of Canadians from September 2019 to February 2021.
The findings reveal multiple trajectories of trust, including increases, decreases, and stability, with socioeconomic position emerging as a key predictor of trust trajectory membership. The research highlights that different segments of the population experience varying changes in trust during crises, and these changes are influenced by existing structures of social stratification.
This study contributes to the literature on the social context of trust by providing evidence that supports each of the three perspectives
