Replication Data for: Trust After Tragedy: How Traumatic Events Impact Trust in Government(s) and Voting

Social psychological studies find that traumatic events can have significant impacts on individuals' trust in others, but do these effects extend to trust in political institutions? Further, are these relationships the same across different groups of Americans? Previous research finds that posttraumatic stress responses lead to a decrease in interpersonal trust, while posttraumatic growth may lead to increased trust in some individuals or groups. In an era in which traumatic events are increasingly politicized and polarized, do these patterns of trust and distrust extend to trust in levels of government? Using original survey data, I find that the psychological effects of trauma exposure manifest in divergent levels of trust in local, state, and federal governments. I use novel, validated abbreviated short-form scales of posttraumatic stress and growth to measure these dynamics. PTS responses are associated with more trust in the federal government, less trust in other people, and lower likelihood of voting while PTG is associated with more trust in the state and local governments as well as in other people and higher likelihood of voting.