Who do we trust and how do we cope with COVID-19? A mixed-methods sequential exploratory approach to understanding supportive messages across 35 cultures

Abstract

Based upon a mixed-methods follow-up exploratory model, we examined the link between trust and coping during the early outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic at the society level. Qualitative data were collected from the supportive messages written by 10,072 community adults across 35 societies. Trust and coping were used as the two pre-defined themes in the conceptual content analysis. Five subthemes emerged from the theme trust, depicting five distinct trusted targets: God, a larger us, country/government, science/healthcare, and the affected. Six subthemes emerged from the theme coping, depicting six distinct coping strategies: interpersonal/social coping, religious/spiritual coping, acceptance, blame, wishful thinking, and strength-based coping. A follow-up quantitative investigation also showed that four society-level factors (viz., individualism, cultural tightness, globalization, and severity of pandemic) had differential effects on people’s trusted targets and ways of coping with the pandemic. Our study made both methodological and practical contributions to cross-cultural research on COVID-19 by using a mixed-methods approach in a multinational study and demonstrating the importance of making meaningful virtual connection during a time of physical distancing.

Retrospecting Digital Media Use, Negative Emotions, and Trust Gaps During the COVID-19 Pandemic in China: Cross-Sectional Web-Based Survey

“…Third, public understanding of the coronavirus was very limited at the very beginning of the outbreak. Insufficient knowledge led the public to experience a high degree of uncertainty and a strong sense of insecurity, which potentially impacted their social trust [ 46 , 47 ]. This warranted the investigation into the relationship between digital media use and trust gaps at the very early phase compared with other phases of the health crisis.…”

Social media trust predicts lower COVID-19 vaccination rates and higher excess mortality over 2 years

“…In the face of a global health crisis, trust in health care is essential to prevention implementation and containment measures. Trust refers to a belief or confidence in people, organizations, or systems that have the ability, integrity, and benevolence that can be relied on ( 9–11 ). Different types of trust exert differential effects on health behavior and vaccine hesitancy.…”

“…Institutional trust is also associated with lower COVID-19 mortality ( 15 ). Trust in collective targets and efforts provides individuals with social capital to buffer their feelings of powerlessness and helplessness in coping with the pandemic ( 9 ). Trust in others is foundational for positive relationships with healthcare professionals and beneficial to cooperation and prosocial behavior in response to the pandemic ( 16 ).…”

A tale of two paths to vaccine acceptance: self-interest and collective interest effect, mediated by institutional trust, and moderated by gender

“…In the context of the COVID-19 crisis, previous research suggests that during the crisis, people are more engaged with altruistic messages than egoistic messages (Zimand-Sheiner et al, 2022) and that interdependent individuals are more cooperative than independent individuals in collective cooperation, such as assisting others affected by the pandemic (Au et al, 2023), staying at home adherence (Tu et al, 2021) and increased vaccine acceptance Barbieri et al, 2023). These findings suggest that pro-social behavior is related to selfregulatory ability that enables altruistic people to resist selfish impulses (Cao and Li, 2022) and to empathy, i.e., the ability to imagine what another person's life is like, which leads to greater social competence (Hajek and Konig, 2022).…”