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Public trust, policing, and the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from an electoral authoritarian regime
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Public trust, policing, and the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from an electoral authoritarian regime

Robert A. Blair, Travis Curtice, David Dow and Guy Grossman
Social science & medicine (1982), v 305, 115045
Jul 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115045
PMID: 35623233
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115045View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)Open Access (License Unspecified),  Open

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic Policing Public health Survey experiments Trust in government Uganda
We examine how trust shapes compliance with public health restrictions during the COVID- 19 pandemic in Uganda. We use an endorsement experiment embedded in a mobile phone survey to show that messages from government officials generate more support for public health restrictions than messages from religious authorities, traditional leaders, or international NGOs. We further show that compliance with these restrictions is strongly positively correlated with trust in government, but only weakly correlated with trust in local authorities or other citizens. We use measures of trust from both before and during the pandemic to rule out the possibility that trust is a function of the pandemic itself. The relationship between trust and compliance is especially strong for the Ministry of Health and—more surprisingly—the police. We conclude that trust is crucial for encouraging compliance but note that it may be difficult to sustain, particularly in settings where governments and police forces have reputations for repression. •Reports results from a large panel survey conducted before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda.•Provides a novel argument that trust is important at four stages of pandemic response.•Shows messages from government officials generate stronger support for public health restrictions.•Shows compliance with these restrictions is positively correlated with trust in government.•Demonstrates the relationship between trust and compliance is especially strong for the police.

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18 Record Views
20 citations in Web of Science
19 citations in Scopus

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Social Sciences, Biomedical
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