Beyond Brexit: The Relative Roles of Knowledge, National Identity, and Mass Media Visibility as Competing Determinants of UK Citizens’ Trust in EU Institutions

Abstract

The efficacy of democratic states depends on the level of trust the public have on state institutions, which is evident in case of Brexit. To understand such distrust the study investigates the determinants of Trust in EU institutes among UK citizens by employing quantitative research design. The Eurobarometer 90.3 survey was adopted to utilize the relevant data from only UK national respondents. Crosstabulation and correlation tests were performed for data analysis to determine the relationship between dependent (Trust in EU institutions) and independent variables (Political Knowledge, National Attachment, and Visibility in Mass Media). The findings suggested that political knowledge has a significant relationship with level of trust whereas there is insignificant relationship between Trust and both National Attachment and Visibility of Mass Media. These results raise a question regarding Euroscepticism emphasizing the impacts of nationalism and media and require further investigation into the significant determinants contributing towards lack of trust.