Alternative systems: the interplay between criminal groups’ influence and political trust on civic honesty in the global context
Alternative systems: the interplay between criminal groups’ influence and political trust on civic honesty in the global context
Individuals’ endorsement of standards of civic honesty is necessary for democracies to flourish. A critical driver of civic honesty is the relationship of trust between individuals and institutions. Research has yet to systematically assess the contextual factors that may moderate this relationship. In this study, we examined the societal influence of organized criminal groups. Criminal groups operate as alternative systems of authority that erode the reliability of institutions’ moral standards. We employed a new indicator that quantifies their societal influence to test the hypothesis that the association between individuals’ political trust and civic honesty would weaken in countries more strongly affected by criminal groups. Multilevel evidence across 83 representative national samples (N = 128,839) supported this hypothesis. Moreover, the association between political trust and civic honesty was negative in contexts where criminal groups’ influence was more extreme. We discuss the implications of the findings and future research directions.
civic honesty, organized criminal groups, political trust, public goods
Travaglino, Giovanni A.
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Burgmer, Pascal
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Mirisola, Alberto
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Travaglino, Giovanni A.
674d67be-b42f-48b6-9b37-93795c167eec
Burgmer, Pascal
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Mirisola, Alberto
2b67cb34-1376-4fa8-8688-907e6354a329
Travaglino, Giovanni A., Burgmer, Pascal and Mirisola, Alberto
(2023)
Alternative systems: the interplay between criminal groups’ influence and political trust on civic honesty in the global context.
Social Psychological and Personality Science.
(doi:10.1177/19485506231176615).
Abstract
Individuals’ endorsement of standards of civic honesty is necessary for democracies to flourish. A critical driver of civic honesty is the relationship of trust between individuals and institutions. Research has yet to systematically assess the contextual factors that may moderate this relationship. In this study, we examined the societal influence of organized criminal groups. Criminal groups operate as alternative systems of authority that erode the reliability of institutions’ moral standards. We employed a new indicator that quantifies their societal influence to test the hypothesis that the association between individuals’ political trust and civic honesty would weaken in countries more strongly affected by criminal groups. Multilevel evidence across 83 representative national samples (N = 128,839) supported this hypothesis. Moreover, the association between political trust and civic honesty was negative in contexts where criminal groups’ influence was more extreme. We discuss the implications of the findings and future research directions.
Text
2023-04-25 Alternative System [Accepted Version]
- Accepted Manuscript
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travaglino-et-al-2023-alternative-systems-the-interplay-between-criminal-groups-influence-and-political-trust-on-civic
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 28 April 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 7 June 2023
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the UKRI Grant “Secret Power” No. EP/X02170X/1 awarded to GA Travaglino under the European Commission’s “European Research Council—STG” Scheme.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.
Keywords:
civic honesty, organized criminal groups, political trust, public goods
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 477631
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/477631
ISSN: 1948-5506
PURE UUID: d6442da5-a62c-4959-a295-55d9584b26d5
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Date deposited: 09 Jun 2023 16:59
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 02:30
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Contributors
Author:
Giovanni A. Travaglino
Author:
Pascal Burgmer
Author:
Alberto Mirisola
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