Alam Raihan, Rai Tage S
Rady School of Management, University of California, San Diego, CA 92093.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 May 27;122(21):e2501822122. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2501822122. Epub 2025 May 20.
Institutional legitimacy is essential for democracies, yet public trust and confidence in the United States Congress are at an all-time low. A significant predictor of attitudes toward Congress is perceptions of corruption, with perceptions of corruption in government linked to less legitimacy. This study tests whether knowledge of Congressional stock trading affects legitimacy and compliance with Congressional authority. In a preregistered experiment with US citizens ( = 506), participants who read a report detailing how Congressmembers made higher-than-expected profits from stock trading in 2024 reported increased perceptions of corruption and decreased legitimacy in Congress. They also viewed laws passed by Congress as less fair and were less willing to comply with such laws. Perceptions of Congressional legitimacy mediated the effect of stock trading knowledge on willingness to comply with congressional laws and perceptions of congressional laws as fair. A preregistered follow-up experiment ( = 664) shows that these effects are not driven by how much Congressmembers profit but by how trading negatively affects broader perceptions of legitimacy. These findings highlight the detrimental effects of Congressional stock trading on perceptions of legitimacy and respect for the law.
制度合法性对民主国家至关重要，但美国公众对国会的信任和信心处于历史最低点。对国会态度的一个重要预测因素是对腐败的认知，对政府腐败的认知与较低的合法性相关。本研究测试了对国会股票交易的了解是否会影响合法性以及对国会权威的遵守。在一项对美国公民进行的预注册实验（n = 506）中，阅读了一份详细报告的参与者，该报告详述了国会议员在2024年通过股票交易获得高于预期利润的情况，他们报告称对腐败的认知增加，对国会合法性的认知降低。他们还认为国会通过的法律不那么公平，并且不太愿意遵守这些法律。对国会合法性的认知介导了股票交易知识对遵守国会法律意愿以及将国会法律视为公平的认知的影响。一项预注册的后续实验（n = 664）表明，这些影响不是由国会议员获利多少驱动的，而是由交易对更广泛的合法性认知的负面影响驱动的。这些发现凸显了国会股票交易对合法性认知和对法律尊重的有害影响。
