Internet Use and Perceptions of Social Fairness in China: The Mediating Role of Social Trust and Urban-Rural Heterogeneity

This study, positioned at the critical juncture of China’s transition from digitalization to intelligence, explores how Internet use is associated with social trust and perceptions of social fairness, as well as how these relationships vary across different social contexts. Based on nationally representative data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) 2021, regression analysis and Bootstrap methods were employed to systematically examine the relationship between internet usage frequency and perceptions of social fairness as well as the mediating role of social trust. Urban-rural heterogeneity was identified as the primary source of variation through within-sample comparison, while Henan Province was examined as a validating case to test mechanism robustness. The research found that in the national sample, internet usage frequency was significantly negatively associated with perceptions of social fairness, and this relationship was partially mediated by the decrease in social trust, with the mediating effect accounting for 24% to 37% of the total effect depending on model specification. Notably, urban residents experience twice the negative impact compared to rural residents (β_urban = −.080 vs. β_rural = −.040, p < .01), revealing significant digital divide effects. The Henan case ( n = 398) demonstrates consistent mechanism direction with the national sample, with effect sizes even larger (β = −.089) though marginally significant due to smaller sample size, validating the theoretical robustness of the identified pathways. These findings provide important implications for digital governance practice: digital inclusion policies should shift from “universality-oriented” to “quality-oriented”; mechanisms should be constructed to protect social trust in the digital era; and differentiated urban-rural digital development strategies should be implemented to promote positive interaction between digitalization and social harmony.