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Ecologies of Public Trust: The NHS COVID-19 Contact Tracing App
- Source :
- Journal of Bioethical Inquiry
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Springer Singapore, 2021.
-
Abstract
- In April 2020, close to the start of the first U.K. COVID-19 lockdown, the U.K. government announced the development of a COVID-19 contact tracing app, which was later trialled on the U.K. island, the Isle of Wight, in May/June 2020. United Kingdom surveys found general support for the development of such an app, which seemed strongly influenced by public trust. Institutions developing the app were called upon to fulfil the commitment to public trust by acting with trustworthiness. Such calls presuppose that public trust associated with the app can emerge if the conditions for trustworthiness are met and that public trust is simplistic, i.e., linearly the sum of each member of the publics’ individual – U.K. government trust relationship. Drawing on a synthesis of the trust literature and fifteen interviews with members of the public trialling the app on the Isle of Wight, this paper aims to explore what trust mechanisms and relationships are at play when thinking about public trust in the context of the U.K. COVID-19 app. We argue that public trust is a complex social phenomenon and not linearly correlated with institutional trustworthiness. As such, attention needs to widen from calls for trustworthy infrastructures as a way to build public trust, to a deeper understanding of those doing the trusting; in particular, what or whom do people place their trust in (or not) when considering whether using the app and why. An understanding of this will help when trying to secure public trust during the implementation of necessary public health measures. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11673-021-10127-x.
- Subjects :
- medicine.medical_specialty
Health (social science)
Context (language use)
Medical law
0603 philosophy, ethics and religion
Trust
State Medicine
050602 political science & public administration
medicine
Humans
Sociology
Original Research
Trustworthiness
Ethics
Government
business.industry
Social phenomenon
SARS-CoV-2
Health Policy
Public health
05 social sciences
COVID-19
06 humanities and the arts
Public relations
Digital health
Mobile Applications
0506 political science
Communicable Disease Control
Public trust
060301 applied ethics
Contact tracing app
Contact Tracing
business
Wight
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 18724353 and 11767529
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of Bioethical Inquiry
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....4f5aa6b113a5c1862c51035ea07fb913