SOLIDARITY AND TRUST

The role of trust in solidary behaviours and attitudes in the national and EU political context

COVID-19 confronts individual citizens and society as a whole with numerous uncertainties. People are faced with the difficult task of assessing the risk of the virus and having to adjust their actions accordingly. Politicians and political institutions can help them deal with these uncertainties by allowing citizens to outsource risk assessment and behavioral decision-making. In this context, trust in the persons and institutions concerned is particularly important, as the level of uncertainty is high and the level of knowledge is low (Siegrist et al., 2010). If there is sufficient trust, political actors can successfully implement measures in the public sector to contain the effects of the pandemic.

On the one hand, the work package asks which aspects, in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, influence the trust of citizens in institutions and politicians. Building on this, the interactions between this trust and attitudes and behavior based on solidarity in connection with the COVID-19 crisis will be examined. Various aspects of solidarity at national and European level are also being considered.

Citrin J. and L. Stoker (2018) 'Political trust in a cynical age', Annual Review of Political Science, 21, 49–70.
Siegrist M., T.C. Earle and H. Gutscher (2010) Trust in Risk Management: Uncertainty and Scepticism in the Public Mind (Routledge).
Siegrist M. (2019) 'Trust and risk perception: a critical review of the literature', Risk analysis.

GESIS – Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences / Prof. Dr. Alexia Katsanidou