How does verbal corruption in local governments affect government trust in online public opinion crises? A structural equation modelling analysis in China

In the context of online public opinion crises, the phenomenon of verbal corruption by local governments has been observed to exert a detrimental effect on government trust. However, the precise mechanism through which this occurs remains to be fully elucidated. By studying the internal mechanism and influence path of local government's verbal corruption on government trust, it can provide rich theoretical support and practical guidance for government trust repair work. In this paper, we choose local government's verbal corruption, netizen's perception tendency and netizen's evaluation as the factors affecting government trust in online public opinion crisis, and we build a theoretical model to explore the influence of local government's verbal corruption on government trust and the path of its effect in online public opinion crisis. The following conclusions are obtained from the data analysis through the structural equation modelling method: (1) low verbal corruption behaviours of local governments in online public opinion crises can significantly enhance government trust; (2) netizens' perceived tendency and netizens' evaluations play significant mediating roles in the relationship between the influence of verbal corruption behaviours of local governments and government trust, respectively; (3) netizens' perceived tendency and netizens' evaluation play significant mediating roles in the relationship between the influence of verbal corruption behaviours of local governments and government trust. Government trust influence of the relationship play a significant chain mediating role. The conclusions of this paper can be used as a point of reference to provide intellectual support for the management of online public opinion crises and the repair of government trust.