Who Trusts National Institutions and The Role of Media Use: A Global Analysis Across Regions

This paper investigates how media usage and individual characteristics shape trust in national institutions across diverse political and informational environments. Drawing on a harmonized dataset that combines the WVS/EVS Trend 1981–2022 with population data from the World Bank, we analyze 423,346 individual observations from 97 countries. We examine trust in five national institutions (press, government, parliament, law courts, and commercial banks) and conduct region-specific analyses covering 8 regions: Western Europe and other Advanced Economies, Eastern Europe (within and outside the Russian sphere), Asia (within and outside the China sphere), Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and the MENA. The results reveal robust cross-regional patterns: traditional media use is consistently associated with higher trust in national institutions, whereas social media use is generally linked to lower trust, particularly in political institutions. We review and discuss the sharply differing regional effects of religious adherence and the length of the current government ruling party time in office. Subjective well-being, perceived security, and life satisfaction emerge as the most stable predictors of trust across regions and institutions. These findings highlight the joint roles of information environments and lived experience in shaping institutional trust and carry important implications for governance and public communication strategies.