Perceived threats, trust in authorities, and well-being: The role of responsibility attribution

Subjective well-being, i.e., a combination of affective and cognitive evaluations of one's life, is predicted by objective and subjective indicators of the country's state of affairs. Previous studies have revealed the negative effect of perceived external threats on various well-being indicators. However, we expected that some threats may have paradoxical positive effects. Our study explored the relationship between various forms of perceived external threats, attitudes toward the political system, and satisfaction with life. In two studies involving Russian respondents, we measured the intensity of perceived economic and violent threats, attribution of responsibility to domestic political authorities, political trust, and satisfaction with life. The studies showed that perceived external threats predict not only decreased but also increased life satisfaction. Perceived economic threats had a negative and perceived violent threats a positive indirect effect on satisfaction with life mediated by political trust. The association of economic threats with political trust and satisfaction with life was moderated by the attribution of responsibility for economic problems to domestic political authorities. We discuss the possible explanations for these effects and their policy implications.