In recent months, the majority of the US population has been subject to stay at home and social distancing orders to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. In new research which analyses cellphone data, Daniel A. N. Goldstein and Johannes Wiedemann find that people’s sense of trust in government and others is related to their compliance with going along with preventative measures like stay at home orders. They write that this link is fueled by partisanship and social capital: people are more likely to trust preventative policies if they have high levels of social capital or if the measures are implemented by officials who are from the party they support
