The impact of social group relations and governmental trust on societal confidence: an analysis utilizing survey data from Chongqing

Based on the data from a survey on social attitudes and social development status conducted in Chongqing by the research group of the Institute of Social Development Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, this study empirically examines the internal relationships among social group relations, government trust, and social confidence through constructing a chained mediation structural equation model. The findings indicate that more harmonious social group relations are associated with higher levels of public social confidence; social confidence increases as government trust rises, and government trust serves as a chained mediator between social group relations and social confidence. Therefore, when confronted with tense social group relations, government agencies can enhance social group relations and boost government trust by improving their governance capabilities and work performance, thereby effectively increasing public social confidence.