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Effects of cooperative and uncooperative narratives on trust during the COVID-19 pandemic: Experimental evidence

Laura Galdikiene, Jurate Jaraite and Agne Kajackaite

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), 2024, vol. 112, issue C

Abstract: To help contain the COVID-19 pandemic, many policymakers and health experts and the media have promoted responsible health behavior by using public narratives highlighting uncooperative behavior, including the lack of social distancing and resistance to various pandemic restrictions and COVID-19 vaccination. However, whether these uncooperative narratives may have detrimental consequences on trust is unclear. Hence, we conducted an online experiment to explore how the exposure to uncooperative and cooperative pandemic narratives affects people's trust in each other. We hypothesized that providing individuals with narratives depicting behaviors that violate (uncooperative narratives) and support pandemic social norms (cooperative narratives) would decrease and increase their trust in others, respectively. We showed that neither of the narratives had any effect on trust.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Health attitudes; Narratives; Social norms; Trust game; Vaccines (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D9 D91 I12 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:soceco:v:112:y:2024:i:c:s2214804324000843

DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2024.102246

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