Women were more likely to trust key actors during the first wave of the pandemic. This is one of the findings of a study published by VA (Public & Science). Parts of the results are now available as an article in The European Journal of Public Health.
In November 2021 the study ”Communication about corona – media reporting and trust during the Covid-19 pandemic” was published by the non-profit Swedish organisation VA (Public & Science) in collaboration with researchers from Karolinska Institutet and Södertörn University. The two-part study aimed to investigate both how Swedes were receiving and interpreting information about the Coronavirus pandemic, as well as how the pandemic was being reported by the media.
The first part of the study covered the period March 2020–April 2021, and investigated Swedish residents’ media use and trust in and perceived agreement among professionals from various fields appearing in the media.
women and those with higher education were more likely to trust key pandemic actors
The scientific article “Media use and trust during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from eight cross-sectional surveys in Sweden”, now published open access in the European Journal of Public Health, is based on the first wave of the pandemic, where eight online surveys were conducted from March – August 2020, with a minimum of 1000 participants in each survey. The results show that five or more information sources were associated with increased perceived alarmism in the media. Another notable result is that women and those with higher education were more likely to trust key pandemic actors. The level of trust in key professional groups was strongly associated with perceived agreement among them.
