Relationship between People’s Trust in the Government and Their Compliance with Covid-19 Health Advice: A Case study of Tehran Residents

Introduction: Different people try to follow the health protocols and limit their daily behaviors in different ways to deal with Covid-19 Pandemic. In the meantime, trust is an important element as a facilitator of social cooperation and a creator of responsibility among people. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between people’s trust in government and their compliance with Covid-19 recommendations. Method: In this research survey a questionnaire was used for data collection. The statistical population of the study includes all people living in Tehran during the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic (Autumn, 2020), of which 300 people were selected by cluster sampling method. Thedata were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression technique. Findings: Based on results, there is a significant relationship between “compliance with health recommendations” and “government altruism” (R = 0.48), “Government honesty” (R = 0.34), and “Government efficiency” (R = 0.26). The results of regression analysis also indicate that the regression model of the research is significant and the value of the correlation coefficient (R) between the variables is 0.543, which shows that there is a relatively strong correlation between the set of independent variables and the dependent variable. Discussion: In Iran, the political institution, specifically the Government, still influence the social behavior of individuals. So that increasing trust in the government has a positive effect on reducing the prevalence of the disease through more compliance with health protocols by the people.