2.1. Government Trust and Flood Risk Perception
Prior studies showed that trust has an important role in perceived risk
and often leads to a lower level of risk perception. For example,
Terpstra (2011) and Hung (2009) found that trust in public flood
protection was negatively related to preparedness. Grothmann and
Reusswig (2006) reported that relying on flood protection was negatively
correlated with information seeking and with the adoption of
flood-mitigation measures in the past.
In contrast, some researchers have questioned the relationship between
trust and the perception of hazards (e.g., Eiser, Miles, & Frewer,
2002; Sjöberg, 2001; Viklund, 2003). For example, Sjöberg (2001)
revealed a weak correlation between trust and risk perception. Lin et
al. (2008) indicated that higher levels of trust or confidence in crisis
management and provision of flood warnings (by government, risk experts,
and the media) increased mitigation intentions, insurance purchase
intentions, and information-seeking intentions. In China, weather
changes and flood hazard information are released to the public by
government-run media, information on whether flood risk occurs is also
released by the government. Therefore, we focus on the government trust,
which is the degree of the people think the government will protect
them, including confidence and intentions.