Research

Trust and human poo

Humanity needs food, and to grow that food, we need fertilisers. But fertilisers present enormous environmental impact. Animal manure causes nitrate pollution in soil, groundwater and the atmosphere. Whereas artificial fertilisers account for 1-2 % of global energy consumption and 1.4% of global CO2 emissions.

Human Excretion Based Fertiliser (HEBF), or fertilisers based on human poo, may offer a solution. But we need to know how socially acceptable this solution is. Based on surveys in Japan and England, we find that the Japanese are more accepting of using HEBF for food production, with fewer health concerns, compared to the English. However, English respondents are more open to using HEBF in public parks. We also notice strong gender differences.

• Pickering, S., & Gökçe, Ö., & Hanna, D., & Knell, M., & Lee, D., & Scales, M., & Zeinalabidin, M. & Sunahara, Y., & Hansen, M. E. (2024). Public perceptions of human excretion-based fertiliser in England and Japan. Waste Management Bulletin (2)4: 11-20.

Trust, religion and vaccination: The role of religion and COVID-19 vaccine uptake in England

Existing research has found a link between religious beliefs and vaccine hesitancy. This analysis used data from a survey of over 12,000 respondents in England and finds that respondents who identify as being part of the Church of England or Methodist denominations have had significantly more COVID-19 vaccinations. However, Pentecostal and Muslim respondents have had significantly fewer COVID-19 vaccinations.

Clearly, public health bodies need to engage with religious leaders. Communication strategies need to be tailored to specific religious groups. Trust plays a key factor, so we need to ensure that religious groups are able to trust healthcare institutes.

• Hansen, M. E., & Pickering, S. D. (2024). The role of religion and COVID-19 vaccine uptake in England. Vaccine (42)13: 3215-3219.

Trust, the police and gender: London, you have a problem with women

Following a series of high-profile incidents of violence against women by serving London Metropolitan Police Officers, questions of standards and the public’s confidence in policing are in the spotlight. We find that women in England are more trusting in the police than men. But not in London. London is the only area in England where women’s overall trust in the police is lower than men, even when we control for age, income, political environment and crime levels.

• Pickering, S. D., & Dorussen, H., & Hansen, M. E., & Reifler, J., & Scotto, T., & Sunahara, Y., & Yen, D. (2024). London, you have a problem with women: Trust towards the police in England. Policing & Society, x(x), x-x. In press.

Trust, doctors, nurses and strikes

How much do the public support striking nurses and junior doctors? It turns out people are generally more supportive of these healthcare workers striking than other professionals like postal workers or teachers. Support levels vary by political affiliation, ideology, and trust in the NHS, with non-Conservative, left-leaning individuals, and those with high trust in the NHS more likely to back the strikes. These findings suggest strategic directions for increasing public support for healthcare workers' strikes.

• Hansen, M. E., & Pickering, S. D. (2024). From Plaster Casts to Picket Lines: Public Support for Industrial Action in the National Health Service in England. Nursing Inquiry, x(x), x-x. In press.

Trust and waiting for health-care

Waiting times for healthcare in the UK are at an all time high. Does this affect people's trust in the NHS? Our survey of 7,415 people suggests not. Even when waiting times in Accident and Emergency rooms are long, or when there is a long delay in referrals for cancer treatment, people still trust the NHS. However, members of ethnic minorities and people who voted for the Conservative Party do tend to trust the NHS less. If the NHS wants to build trust, then it needs to look to these two key groups.

• Dorussen, H., & Hansen, M. E., & Pickering, S. D., & Reifler, J., & Scotto, T., & Sunahara, Y., & Yen, D. (2024). The Influence of Waiting Times and Sociopolitical Variables on Public Trust in Healthcare: A Cross-Sectional Study of the NHS in England. Public Health in Practice, 7(100484), 1-7.

Trust and health data

Project leads: Dorothy YEN and Han DORUSSEN

How happy are you with sharing your health data? Who should have access to your medical information? Our survey of over 2300 people in England aimed to answer this question. Most people are fine with the NHS sharing their personal details with hospitals and GPs but are much less comfortable with sharing these details with pharmaceutical companies or local councils. People were more open to sharing their personal (non-anonymised) information when they believed there would be direct benefits for them, like better care or more tailored services. We find that the NHS and others should be more clear about the benefits of sharing information. They should also start using the term "information" rather than "data" to improve public perceptions.

• Accepted for publication in British Journal of Healthcare Management. Full citation soon.

Trust and compliance

Project lead: Yosuke SUNAHARA

During the spread of the new coronavirus infection, a major challenge was whether people would take action to follow government directives, such as wearing masks and keeping social distance. Wearing masks is expected to be effective in preventing the spread of infection to others. It is not only an act of individual prevention of infection but also has the nature of a collective action. This study explores how factors that promote collective action, such as trust in others, and individual factors, such as the threat of infectious disease, influence compliance behavior using online survey data collected monthly in a national sample since July 2022.

Trust and Social Dominance Orientations

Project lead: Atsushi TAGO

Social dominance orientation (SDO) has been used extensively in international relations studies in recent years as a possible predictor of specific policy support tendencies. One such argument is that it predicts realism, for which data from the United States have been presented. This study will use data from Japan and the United Kingdom to see how effective SDOs are as a predictor of realism in non-U.S. contexts.

Government responses to COVID-19

Project lead: Naofumi FUJIMURA

How have governments responded to the COVID-19 pandemic? In governments, as policy-making authority is delegated to ministers, ministers play a central role in policymaking. Consequently, to understand how governments have made policy to respond to the pandemic, it is important to identify ministers’ positions on and policy conflict between ministers over the pandemic. Conducting a text analysis of cabinet ministers’ speeches in the Japanese Diet, we identify individual ministers’ policy positions on a dimension of economy vs. health.

Immigration and public opinion

Project leads: Riku KAWAKAMI and Thomas SCOTTO

Immigration is a contentious issue in both Japan and England, in part due to England's post-Brexit "points-based" system favoring highly skilled workers and Japan's traditionally restrictive migration policies. Yet the governments of both countries implicitly understand the need for immigrants to fill roles in various sectors, especially as demographic shifts pressure labour markets.

By developing a unique conjoint experiment, we explore preferences for immigrants across low and high skilled sectors and find surprisingly nuanced public attitude. English respondents show a greater variation in their preferences by job sector, particularly valuing immigrants in caring professions, likely reflecting the more vigorous and detailed public debate on immigration in Britain compared to Japan's more muted discussion.

Terrorism and political attitudes

Project lead: Naofumi FUJIMURA

In Japan, on July 8, 2022, two days before the House of Councillors election voting day, a terrorist attack occurred in which former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot and killed. We happened to be conducting an awareness survey of the general public from July 6 to 12, before and after the shooting. Using the data from this survey, we can conduct a natural experiment on the impact of terrorism on people's political attitudes by using the respondents before the shooting as the control group and those after the shooting as the treatment group.

Elections and political efficacy

Project lead: Yosuke SUNAHARA

Do people feel political efficacy more when elections are held? In Japan, many local governments hold elections concurrently during quadrennial unified local elections in April 8, 2023. However, there are some local governments that do not hold elections at the time. In this study, we conduct a survey on political efficacy in March and April to observe whether there is a difference in the sense of political efficacy between local residents that are involved in elections and those that are not.