Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/331918 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Citation: 
[Journal:] British Journal of Social Psychology [ISSN:] 2044-8309 [Volume:] 62 [Issue:] 3 [Publisher:] The British Psychological Society [Place:] s.l. [Year:] 2023 [Pages:] 1376-1394
Publisher: 
The British Psychological Society, s.l.
Abstract: 
Trust is highlighted as central to effective disease management. During the COVID‐19 pandemic, Denmark seemed to embody this understanding. Characterizing the Danish response were high levels of public compliance with government regulations and restrictions coupled with high trust in the government and other members of society. In this article, we first revisit prior claims about the importance of trust in securing compliant citizen behaviour based on a weekly time‐use survey that we conducted during the first weeks of the COVID‐19 pandemic (2 April–18 May 2020). Analysis of activity episodes, rather than merely self‐reported compliance, both reconfirms the importance of institutional trust and nuances prior suggestions of detrimental effects of trust in other citizens. These survey‐based results are further augmented through thematic analysis of 21 in‐depth interviews with respondents sampled from the survey participants. The qualitative analysis reveals two themes, the first focusing on trust in others in Danish society and the second on the history of trust in Denmark. Both themes are based on narratives layered in cultural, institutional and inter‐personal levels and further underline that institutional and social trust are complementary and not countervailing. We conclude by discussing how our analysis suggests pathways towards an increased social contract between governments, institutions and individuals that might be of use during future global emergencies and to the overall functioning of democracies.
Subjects: 
COVID-19
Denmark
mixed-methods
trust
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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