**1. Introduction**

With the spread of COVID-19, in many countries, including China, citizens' trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> has become more important [1]. Trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> refers to the citizens' belief or confidence that the governmen<sup>t</sup> will produce results consistent with their expectations [2,3], which is the core foundation of effective governance [1]. Extensive studies have been conducted to explore the factors of trust in government, including governmen<sup>t</sup> performance [4,5], fairness [6,7], public service [8], and citizen satisfaction [9,10]. Citizens' requirements of the governmen<sup>t</sup> have gradually changed from economic development to livelihood issues such as public services and social fairness in the COVID-19 era [11]. The importance of social fairness and public services has exceeded that of economic performance in mediating trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> [11].

As an important element of basic public services, fairness is the core concept and primary principle of social security [12]. The issue of fairness in China's social security still exists [12]. The governmen<sup>t</sup> provides social security [13]; thus, if citizens feel that the

**Citation:** Zhi, K.; Tan, Q.; Chen, S.; Chen, Y.; Wu, X.; Xue, C.; Song, A. How Does Social Security Fairness Predict Trust in Government? The Serial Mediation Effects of Social Security Satisfaction and Life Satisfaction. *IJERPH* **2022**, *19*, 6867. https://doi.org/10.3390/ ijerph19116867

Academic Editors: V. K. Kumar, Jasmin Tahmaseb-McConatha and Paul B. Tchounwou

Received: 8 April 2022 Accepted: 2 June 2022 Published: 3 June 2022

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**Copyright:** © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

social security system is unfair and that the government's managemen<sup>t</sup> of social security is inconsistent with citizens' expectations, they may lose trust in the governmen<sup>t</sup> [14]. Therefore, it seems reasonable to assume that social security fairness is related to trust in government.

On the one hand, fairness is one of the standards that citizens use to evaluate the quality of social security, which may affect their satisfaction with social security [15,16]. On the other hand, citizens' daily life is closely related to social security, whereby its improved supply level and fairness could significantly promote citizens' life satisfaction [13]. Previous studies have indicated that social security satisfaction and life satisfaction are positively associated with citizens' trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> [17,18]. Thus, it can be seen that social security fairness, social security satisfaction, life satisfaction, and trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> are closely related.

However, we know little about how social security fairness predicts citizens' trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> as it is mediated through social security satisfaction and life satisfaction. Previous studies mostly discussed the correlations among governmen<sup>t</sup> performance, public service satisfaction, social fairness, and trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> [5,6,17]. Further empirical studies are needed to explore the correlations between social security fairness and trust in government. In this study, we used data from the 2019 Chinese Social Survey (CSS) to explore the serial mediation effects of social security satisfaction and life satisfaction on the association between social security fairness and trust in government.

#### **2. Literature Review and Research Hypothesis**

#### *2.1. Trust in Government*

Citizens' confidence in central and local governmen<sup>t</sup> constitutes their trust in governments [3,5]. Citizens with a high level of trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> are more willing to comply with governmen<sup>t</sup> policies, respond to the government's call, and participate in public affairs [19,20]. When citizens lose confidence in their government, they become reluctant to cooperate with the governmen<sup>t</sup> [19,21], leading to increased costs and difficulty of governance and potentially causing the governmen<sup>t</sup> to fall into the "Tacitus trap" [22]. Accordingly, it is important to investigate factors that might affect trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> and help improve citizens' confidence.

Trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> has been a popular topic in political science research [23]. Institutional theories and cultural theories have provided completely different perspectives to explain the origin and development of trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> [24]. Institutional theories hold that trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> is politically endogenous [24]. Government performance mainly determines citizens' trust in government, as based on a rational evaluation [24,25]. Trust fluctuates with fluctuations in a government's economic and public service performance [4,5,25]. Cultural theories hold that trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> is exogenous [24,25], originating from factors such as traditional culture, values, social capital, and individual experience [24,25]. Institutional theories and cultural theories are not mutually exclusive but complementary, with both considered the main theories explaining the origin of trust in government.

Supporters of institutional theories and cultural theories have investigated various factors of trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> from different perspectives [5,11,17,18]. However, institutional theories ignore that social security fairness is an important basis for citizens to evaluate social security performance, whereas cultural theories neglect the effects of psychological feelings related to social security fairness on trust in government. Therefore, further empirical research is needed to investigate the associated mechanisms between social security fairness and trust in government, which could provide theoretical support for improving the level of citizens' trust in government.

#### *2.2. Social Security Fairness and Trust in Government*

Social security fairness refers to the fairness of the process and results of social security services, which involves the fairness of multiple social security systems, such as elder

security, public health security, and employment security [26]. The fairness theory proposed by Adams [27] suggests that people not only pay attention to the absolute value of the reward they received but also take note of its relative value to other rewards they or others have received. If people consider the rewards fair, they work more actively, thereby reducing workplace deviance [28]. Specifically, people's perception of fairness affects their subsequent attitudes and behaviors [29]. Extending this concept to the study of trust in government, we examined the role of citizens' attitudes toward their governmen<sup>t</sup> in using social security services. If the social security services provided are perceived as fair and reasonable, the citizens are more likely to have higher levels of trust in their government.

Previous studies show that citizens have a strong dislike for the lack of fairness and equality [30,31]. The unfairness of public service resources and policy implementation can lead to their expectations falling short, thus damaging their trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> [6,32]. Zmerli and Castillo [14] found that both income inequality and distributive unfairness are negatively associated with trust in government. Marien and Werner [7] also discovered that citizens who consider authorities to treat them fairly have greater trust in political institutions. Lee [6] confirmed that social fairness is positively correlated to trust in government.

On the basis of this evidence, we formulated a hypothesis about the relationship between social security fairness and trust in government.

#### **Hypothesis 1 (H1)**. *Social security fairness positively predicts citizens' trust in government.*

#### *2.3. The Mediator of Social Security Satisfaction*

Social security satisfaction is defined as the overall satisfaction with various security systems. Expectancy disconfirmation theory holds that if the actual results exceed expectations, positive disconfirmation occurs and satisfaction emerges. If the actual results are lower than expected, negative disconfirmation occurs, leading to decreased satisfaction and complaints [33,34]. The fairness preference theory holds that human beings are born with a preference to pursue fairness [30]. Accordingly, citizens would have grea<sup>t</sup> expectations regarding social security fairness. When the perceived fairness in social security reaches or exceeds their expectations, citizens would evaluate social security services more positively, indicating greater social security satisfaction. On the contrary, when citizens believe that social security is unfair, negative disconfirmation, disappointment, and dissatisfaction with social security services will occur.

Several scholars have claimed that citizens' satisfaction is closely correlated to trust in government. Welch et al. [10] confirmed that citizens' satisfaction with e-governmen<sup>t</sup> is positively associated with trust in government. Zhao and Hu [8] found that, compared with citizens who are unsatisfied with the quality of public service, satisfied citizens have greater trust in their government. Beeri et al. [9] found that citizens' satisfaction with governmen<sup>t</sup> is associated with trust in local government. Better quality of public services is associated with greater citizen satisfaction, as well as greater confidence in governmen<sup>t</sup> [9,35]. Accordingly, it can be speculated that social security satisfaction affects trust in government.

On the basis of the above findings, we propose a hypothesis regarding social security fairness, social security satisfaction, and trust in government.

**Hypothesis 2 (H2).** *Social security satisfaction mediates the relationship between social security fairness and trust in government.*

#### *2.4. The Mediator of Life Satisfaction*

Life satisfaction is an individual's overall subjective evaluation of their quality of life [36]. Research supports that subjective relative deprivation is a negative emotional experience, e.g., loss, dissatisfaction, and anger toward unfairness, which leads to a decline in an individual's life satisfaction and happiness [37]. Liu and Pan [38] found that Chinese rural-to-urban migrant workers' subjective relative deprivation is negatively associated with life satisfaction. Perception of unfairness is an indicator of relative deprivation [39]. Thus, social security unfairness may result in relative deprivation, negatively affecting life satisfaction. A previous study found that perceptions of social fairness and personal life satisfaction are highly correlated in EU countries [36]. Wang and Li [40] revealed that Wenchuan earthquake survivors who believed the governmen<sup>t</sup> relief policy to be fair had a greater life satisfaction compared to those who did not. Sun and Xiao [13] confirmed that social security fairness significantly correlated with citizens' life satisfaction.

Institutional theories hold that citizens' life satisfaction is related to the government's performance and is one of the institutional factors affecting trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> [41]. On the basis of data from the four waves of the World Values Survey (WVS), Helliwell [42] found a positive linear relationship between life satisfaction and citizens' evaluation of government. In general, the government's actions affect citizens' life satisfaction, which is highly correlated with trust in the government. Kong [18] confirmed that both competencebased trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> and goodwill-based trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> are positively related to citizens' life satisfaction. Therefore, we propose a relationship linking social security fairness, life satisfaction, and trust in government.

**Hypothesis 3 (H3).** *Life satisfaction mediates the relationship between social security fairness and trust in government.*

#### *2.5. The Serial Mediation Effects of Social Security Satisfaction and Life Satisfaction*

Bottom-up and top-down theories are two approaches used to explain life satisfaction [43,44]. Top-down theories consider personality traits to be the main predictors of life satisfaction [44]. Bottom-up theories hold that life satisfaction is a function of satisfaction in all subareas of life, such as family, leisure, and work, and that a person's satisfaction with all areas of life mainly determines their personal life satisfaction [45]. Lachmann et al. [46] discovered that personality variables contribute much less to the prediction of overall life satisfaction compared to such life satisfaction variables as work, family, and leisure. They concluded that their results support the bottom-up theories that life satisfaction in various areas of life (e.g., family, work) has a higher impact on overall life satisfaction than top-down variables of demographic and personality variables. Since social security is an essential aspect of daily life, we sugges<sup>t</sup> that social security satisfaction should be highly correlated with citizens' life satisfaction. Thus, we propose a serial two-mediator model describing social security fairness, social security satisfaction, life satisfaction, and trust in government.

**Hypothesis 4 (H4).** *Social security satisfaction and life satisfaction sequentially mediate the relationship between social security fairness and trust in government.*

#### **3. Materials and Methods**

#### *3.1. Data and Sample*

The data for this study came from the 2019 CSS, a nationally representative survey conducted by the Institute of Sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. CSS performed a structured questionnaire administered in household interviews via the probability sampling method, covering 31 provinces of China, including 151 districts and 604 villages. Since 2005, it has used a biennial and continuous survey which involves covering between 7000 and 10,000 families on issues such as family and social life and social attitudes (for more information, please visit: http://css.cssn.cn/css\_sy/ accessed on 7 April 2022).

The 2019 CSS collected 10,283 valid questionnaires; adults aged 18 and above were asked to respond to the survey questions. Respondents participated in the survey voluntarily and anonymously. Through processing the original data, the samples with missing values for the variables involved in the study were eliminated. The final sample included 7403 participants (44.99% males, 55.01% females). The participants' mean age was

44.22 years old; 57.13% were educated below the senior high-school level, while 42.87% had an education at the senior high-school level or above. In addition, 59.34% were from urban areas, while 40.66% were from rural areas.

Because the 2019 CSS data were participants' subjective self-reported answers, statistical measures were used to detect the presence of common method bias in the data [47]. The results of Harman's single-factor test showed that the initial four factors extracted had eigenvalues greater than 1.0, and the first factor accounted for 36.90% of the total variance, which is less than the critical value of 40% [48], suggesting that our data had no serious common method bias.
