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THE CONVERSATION
This article was originally published in The Conversation, an independent source of non-profit news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. rice field. Disclosure information is available on the original site.
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Author: Cary Wu, Associate Professor, Faculty of Sociology, York University, Canada. Alex Bierman, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Calgary, and Scott Schieman, Professor of Sociology and Chairman of the Canadian Research Committee, University of Toronto
Social relations can collapse in times of crisis. Canadians were one of the most trusted people in the world before the pandemic. But have they maintained trust during the pandemic?
According to our recent research, the pandemic has created a greater socio-economic division in terms of trust among Canadians.
Canadians at the high end of socio-economic status have become even more credible. However, trust is declining among economically vulnerable people.
Social trust and its importance
Trust reflects a belief in good humanity. People who trust others think that most people in society are honest and trustworthy. Even when smiling and saying good morning in the elevator, unreliable people may question the intentions of others.
Generalized social trust is trust in people we do not know.
Reliable societies often perform well economically and politically and have rich and healthy citizens. In times of crisis, trust helps promote collective action. Lack of trust, on the other hand, often causes disruption of community interactions, mass panic, and fragmentation.
Growing research suggests that trusted people were essential to a successful pandemic response. Reliables are more likely to wear a mask and be vaccinated. In a reliable community, there are fewer infections and fewer deaths.
Trust also helps prevent the negative effects of pandemics on people's mental health. This is because trustees tend to have more friends and feel more connected with others. Increased social support helps trustees cope with stress well. I also trust between
COVID-19.
Canadians were one of the most trusted people in the world before the pandemic. Ask respondents for a commonly used measure of trust.
"Generally, do you think most people are credible, or you can't pay too much attention to socializing?"
In a pre-pandemic survey It has been consistently shown that more than half of Canadians say that most people are credible. This is compared to the United States, which only about 30 percent of Americans trusted.
However, the pandemic may have lost the confidence of the Canadians. They were warned to maintain a social distance in case a friend or colleague poses a health threat. The increasing number of protests and the occupation of Ottawa truck drivers further demonstrated the potential loss of confidence in Canadians.
Two-year study
Our study tracks Canadian trust before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Did.
Since 2019, during the pandemic, we have repeatedly investigated thousands of Canadians about their trust in others. The first survey was conducted in September 2019 with 2,500 workers. From April 2020 to October 2021, we surveyed the same workers 10 more times. Let's see how their trust in others has changed by tracking the same people over time.
There was no one type of change in people's trust. Instead, there were three different types of changes.
About 22% of the samples lost credibility during the pandemic. Their trust never regained.
Most Canadians actually gained trust during the pandemic or maintained the trust they had before the pandemic.
What seemed to be important in differentiating these groups was how much they trusted before the pandemic. Those who were less credible before the pandemic lost more credibility. People who were very trustworthy have become more trustworthy.
Reliable socio-economic sector
The solution may seem to be to make people credible before the crisis. But it's not that simple.
We examined various markers of socio-economic status of people before the pandemic. We have put together indicators such as income and how hard people struggled to pay their bills into one overall indicator of how wealthy people are.
The importance of socio-economic status was clear. When people are wealthy, they are much more likely to be in a more reliable group. People with low socio-economic status tended to be people who lost trust.
This pattern shows how trust is divided in Canada. Those who had an economic advantage before the pandemic were able to build more trust. Those who were in financial instability lost most of the trust they had.
Widening the trust gap can be detrimental
Canada needs trust to survive. We have already seen how this loss of trust can harm Canada.
The occupation of Ottawa and the closure of the Alberta-Ontario border are about a loss of trust. People have lost confidence in political leaders and others who support pandemic responses such as masking and vaccine requirements.
As a result, the economic and political measures needed for a healthy society have been severely disrupted. International trade has slowed and the position of national affairs has been frozen.
Canada can be even more confused if this trust gap is not addressed. People who are distrustful are at risk of further loss of trust. Further loss of trust can undermine the basic political economy and system and undermine the country's fundamental stability.
It is an open question whether the loss of trust can be regained. But what is clear is that trying to convince people to trust Canada's basic system and each other is not enough. Economic division creates a division of trust that threatens the Canadian lifestyle.
Canada faces a historic rise in inflation, further jeopardizing economic well-being for many. These financial instability may not simply mean more financial difficulty. They may also mean further loss of trust that could undermine the stability of the nation.
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Cary Wu is funded by the Canadian Institute of Health and the Social Sciences Human Research Council.
Alex Bierman is funded by SSHRC and CIHR. He is a member of the American Society of Sociology, the Sociology of Religion, the Sociology of Religion, the Sociology of Religion, and inter-university seminars on the military.
Scott Schieman is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
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This article has been republished by The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Disclosure information is available on the original site. Read the original article:
https://theconversation.com/canadas-trust-divide-is-growing-and-that https://theconversation.com/canadas-trust-d