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The Formation Mechanism of Trust in Patient from Healthcare Professional’s Perspective: A Conditional Process Model

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Abstract

Based on an integrated model of doctor–patient psychological mechanisms, the formation mechanism of doctor-–patient trust was systematically demonstrated from the healthcare professional (HCP)’s perspective integrating intergroup relations (expectations), interpersonal relations (communication), and psychosocial (stereotypes). The results of a survey of 3000 doctors and nurses from 14 provinces in eastern, central, and western China support the rationality of an integrated model of doctor–patient psychological mechanisms. The establishment of doctor–patient trust is influenced by the direct role of primary intergroup factors, the indirect role of immediate interpersonal interactions, and the moderating role of social psychology. Specifically, (1) doctor–patient trust is directly predicted by HCP’s expectation and indirectly influenced by communication; (2) stereotypes regulate the relationship between HCP’s expectation, communication, and doctor–patient trust: the activation of positive stereotypes enhances the positive relationship among the three; Negative stereotypes only positively contribute to mediated pathway-communication behaviors and have a weaker facilitation effect compared to positive stereotypes.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the staff of our partner hospitals for their help in collecting data.

Funding

This research was supported by Major bidding projects for National Social Sciences Fund of China (17ZDA327).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China, No. 3663 North Zhongshan Road, 200062

    Yao Wang, Qing Wu, Yanjiao Wang & Pei Wang

  2. College of Education, Lanzhou City University, Lanzhou, China

    Yao Wang

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  1. Yao Wang
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  2. Qing Wu
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  3. Yanjiao Wang
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Contributions

YW and QW contributed equally to this article. YW and QW: design of the work; analysis, interpretation of data for the work, drafting the work and revising it critically for important intellectual content. YW: proofreading manuscript. PW: validation, investigation, resources, writing—review and editing, supervision, project administration, funding acquisition, and final approval of the version to be published.

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Correspondence to Pei Wang.

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Conflict of interest

Yao Wang, Qing Wu, Yanjiao Wang, and Pei Wang declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

This study was approved by the local ethics committee of Shanghai Normal University and was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (2013).

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All participants were informed before the investigation began. All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the ethics committee of Shanghai Normal University.

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Wang, Y., Wu, Q., Wang, Y. et al. The Formation Mechanism of Trust in Patient from Healthcare Professional’s Perspective: A Conditional Process Model. J Clin Psychol Med Settings 29, 760–772 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-021-09834-9

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