The effect of cultural values and institutional trust on public perceptions of government use of network surveillance

Previous studies indicate that attitudes toward implementing government surveillance systems to collect personal information are affected by privacy concerns, perceived impacts and need, effectiveness of the system, and transparency in the process. Few studies examine how orientations toward individualism and collectivism might affect attitudes and the extent to which trust in institutions moderates attitudes. This study posits and tests an explanatory model to investigate the extent to which institutional trust and cultural values of individualism and collectivism affect support for surveillance systems. The results, based upon a U.S. nationwide survey, show that individualism and collectivism intensify concerns about personal privacy and social justice. Further, institutional trust not only has a positive effect on perceived social justice, but moderates views consistent with surveillance and further enhances support for using surveillance. Implications of the findings are reviewed with respect to understanding public support for government use of network surveillance. •Cultural values influence how people perceive the possible consequence of surveillance.•Individualism increases privacy concerns but undermines confidence in the perception of social justice.•Institutional trust can increase the support for government surveillance through the perception of social justice.