Exploring the Individual-Level Factors Influencing Trust in Consumer Rights Protection: A Cross-National Study in Europe

Trustworthy institutions are often seen as a way of maintaining high levels of collaboration in society. Yet, what characterizes individuals who trust that authorities will safeguard their consumer rights remains under-explored. This study addresses this gap by examining cross-national variations in trust that authorities protect consumer rights. In doing so, it explores whether and how one's in-market experiences and perception (experiencing problems or detriment and issues with product safety), knowledge of consumer rights, and one's socioeconomic resources are related to having confidence that public authorities protect one's consumer rights. In doing so, it partly accounts for national-level institutional and policy variation, by employing country and year fixed effects. The study employs multilevel hierarchical models on four rounds of surveys covering 30 European countries in the 2014–2020 period. The results support the hypothesis that trust is malleable, as negative experiences and market perceptions correlate with trust. Trust levels vary across groups with different access to socioeconomic resources. Knowledge of consumer rights does significantly correlate with the outcome, with a few exceptions. In sum, the study suggests a link between trust in public authorities and markets, which may lead to virtuous or vicious spirals of trust.