This paper explores antecedents and consequences of public's trust towards Red Cross Society of China, which is an NGO controlled by the Chinese government, during the current coronavirus outbreak. While a plenty of medics suffered from the shortage of medical supplies and appealed for public donation, it is revealed that Red Cross Society allocated its medical supplies to hospitals that are not designated to receive coronavirus patients due to internal corruption. Furthermore, in 2011,Guo Meimei, a 20-year-old who claimed to have connection with the Red Cross Society and boasted online about her luxurious lifestyle, also rose public's criticism against Red Cross Society of China.
Previous 'trust' research suggest that contextual antecedents (e.g., judgement and service quality) and individual antecedents (e.g., familiarity and satisfaction) can predict donors' trust towards charity. This study hypothesizes that media's frame, whether mentioning the former 'Guo Meimei incident' or not when reporting the current Red Cross Society scandal, can also affect donors' trust towards Red Cross Society. Moreover, because Red Cross Society of China is controlled by the Chinese government, it is reasonable to believe that individuals' trust towards government will mediate this effect. Besides, since the current coronavirus outbreak has caused thousands of death, this study also posits that individuals' evaluation about the coronavirus risk will mediate this effect. In terms of consequences, we hypothesize that public's trust towards Red Cross Society will be negatively related to their intention of seeking alternative charities.
The method of this study is experiment. A total of 128 Chinese were recruited. After finishing the first part questionnaire in which respondents were asked questions about their attitudes towards the Chinese government, 2×2 experimental groups with 'high/low trust towards government+mentioning Guo Meimei incident' and 'high/low trust towards government+not mentioning Guo Meimei incident' were formed. Respondents were asked to read an original news coverage about the current Red Cross Society scandal(stimuli). Stimuli A is an original news coverage (around 1500 words) about the current Red Cross Society scandal with mentioning 'the Guo Meimei incident', while Stimuli B is an original news coverage (around 1300 words) without mentioning 'the Guo Meimei incident'. After that, respondents were asked questions about 1)their trust towards Red Cross Society; 2) their likelihood of adopting another charity instead of Red Cross Society; 3) their evaluation about the risk of coronavirus.
The experimental results showed that respondents with stimuli A (mentioning 'Guo Meimei incident') have lower trust towards Red Cross Society compared with respondents with stimuli B. Those who perceived the current coronavirus as more dangerous have lower trust towards Red Cross Society. Respondents' trust towards Red Cross Society negatively related to their intention of seeking alternative charities.
This study contributes to the risk communication academia by introducing frame effect into this area, and further, by emphasizing the impact of media exposure in shaping organizational trust. Furthermore, while previous research suggest that public's trust will influence their risk evaluation, we found out that individuals' risk perception can in turn affect their trust towards governments and institutions.