Political Trust in Predicting Readiness to Comply with Governmental Restrictions During COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

In the present paper, we try to answer the question of what makes a citizen to comply to health behaviour guidelines by comparing trust in government and past behaviour as predictors of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Through an online study of 316 respondents, we found that the judgment of government (indirectly, in terms of positive evaluation of government actions during COVID-19) does play an important role in the ratings of the extent to which one will follow restrictions during the pandemic in the future. This variable seems to be a central one in terms of uniting different variables, which predict the restriction following behaviour: an evaluation of the government’s competence, benevolence, integrity, general trust in government during the COVID-19, the perceived risk of government actions concerning oneself and one’s family, as well as with respect to the evaluation of future economic prospects.