Moral dilemmas and trust in leaders during a global health crisis

Everett, Jim A.C., Colombatto, Clara, Awad, Edmond, Boggio, Paolo, Bos, Bjorn, Brady, William, Chawla, Megha, Chituc, Vladimir, Chung, Dongil, Drupp, Moritz, and others. (2021) Moral dilemmas and trust in leaders during a global health crisis. Nature Human Behaviour, . E-ISSN 2397-3374. (doi:10.1038/s41562-021-01156-y) (KAR id:89616)

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Official URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01156-y

Abstract

Trust in leaders is central to citizen compliance with public policies. One potential determinant of trust is how leaders resolve conflicts between utilitarian and non- utilitarian ethical principles in moral dilemmas. Past research suggests that utilitarian responses to dilemmas can both erode and enhance trust in leaders: sacrificing some people to save many others (‘instrumental harm’) reduces trust, while maximizing the welfare of everyone equally (‘impartial beneficence’) may increase trust. In a multi-site experiment spanning 22 countries on six continents, participants (N = 23,929) completed self-report (N = 17,591) and behavioral (N = 12,638) measures of trust in leaders who endorsed utilitarian or non-utilitarian principles in dilemmas concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. Across both the self-report and behavioral measures, endorsement of instrumental harm decreased trust, while endorsement of impartial beneficence increased trust. These results show how support for different ethical principles can impact trust in leaders, and inform effective public communication during times of global crisis.

Item Type:	Article
DOI/Identification number:	10.1038/s41562-021-01156-y
Uncontrolled keywords:	utilitarianism; trust; moral dilemmas; person perception; leadership; politics; COVID-19; health;
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions:	Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Depositing User:	Jim Everett
Date Deposited:	04 Aug 2021 09:08 UTC
Last Modified:	05 Nov 2024 12:55 UTC
Resource URI:	https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/89616 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Everett, Jim A.C..

Creator's ORCID:	https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2801-5426
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