The Role of Public Trust During Pandemics

TLDR

Studies on trust during pandemics are largely atheoretical, lacking a common framework, which hampers identification of shared patterns. This review examines the role of trust in pandemic preparedness and response and identifies research gaps to deepen understanding. The authors applied the trust‑confidence‑cooperation model to synthesize findings across studies. Trust in health agencies increases compliance, the model distinguishes values from past performance to explain risk perception, and five recommendations emerge: diverse expert panels, medical personnel modeling, transparent information, emphasis on trust and confidence, and pre‑pandemic trust building.

Abstract

The present review examined the importance of trust when preparing for and during a pandemic. The reviewed literature suggests that trust in health agencies positively influenced people’s willingness to adopt recommended behavior. Most of these studies are atheoretical, and due to the lack of a common framework for trust and its antecedents, finding commonalities among the studies may seem difficult. The trust, confidence, and cooperation model was used to uncover the commonalities among the various studies on trust. This framework suggests that a distinction between values and past performance may be helpful to better understand the impact of trust on risk perception and behavior. Based on the reviewed literature, the following five recommendations relevant for crisis communication during pandemics were identified: A diverse set of experts should be used as communicators, medical personnel need to model the recommended behavior, a transparent information strategy should be used, the focus should be not only on trust but also on confidence, and establishing trust in health authorities before a pandemic occurs is important. Furthermore, research gaps were identified that should be addressed to better understand the role of trust when dealing with pandemics.