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HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article

Front. Sociol.
Sec. Media Governance and the Public Sphere
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2024.1422731
This article is part of the Research Topic The Erosion of Trust in the 21st Century: Origins, Implications, and Solutions View all articles

Internet Use and Social Trust: Empirical Analysis Based on CGSS2021

Provisionally accepted
JUAN MIAO JUAN MIAO 1,2*Lin-Lin Yang Lin-Lin Yang 2Chen Ming Chen Ming 2Tian Xueqing Tian Xueqing 3*
  • 1 Other, Kunming, China
  • 2 Yunnan University of Finance And Economics, Kunming, China
  • 3 Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, Yunnan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The development of the Internet has significantly changed the way people live and interact with each other. Interaction is the foundation for building trust and may therefore also be influenced by the Internet. This study aims to examine the impact of Internet use on different dimensions of social trust, focusing on the roles of perceived fairness and social support, using the latest data from the CGSS from China. The results show that Internet use has a significant negative predictive effect on the level of social trust, and the perception of social fairness plays a fully mediating role in this relationship. That is, Internet use can indirectly reduce people's level of social trust by reducing their perception of social fairness. Furthermore, the results indicate that social support can moderate people's perceptions of social fairness and thus mitigate the negative effects of Internet use on social trust. These results suggest that we should raise the profile of the impact of internet use, actively improve people's perceptions of social fairness to increase their level of social trust, and finally, focus on the positive role of social support, which can reduce the negative impact of internet use.

    Keywords: internet use1, social trust2, perception of social fairness3, social support4, social interaction5

    Received: 24 Apr 2024; Accepted: 13 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 MIAO, Yang, Ming and Xueqing. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    JUAN MIAO, Other, Kunming, China
    Tian Xueqing, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, Yunnan, China

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