The choice of a communication strategy adopted by the local government to meet the needs of the public after the occurrence of a public crisis is an important issue in the practice of government governance and in academia. How and to what extent do different crisis communication strategies affect the public's political attitudes remain unresolved issues. This paper proposes two different government crisis communication strategies, “management-oriented” and “concern-oriented”, and based on real public emergencies, it attempts to construct a theoretical model that includes the crisis communication strategy, public sentiment, and government trust. We further analyze the internal mechanism and heterogeneity effects of two crisis communication strategies for three different types of public service events: unexpected events, defect events, and scandals. The study finds that: (1) After the occurrence of a public crisis, compared to the “management-oriented” crisis communication strategy, the “concern-oriented” crisis communication strategy is more helpful to improve the public's trust in local government. (2) Public emotions play an important mediating role in the process through which a government crisis communication strategy may affect local government trust. The reason a “concern-oriented” communication strategy is more helpful to improve the level of local government trust is mainly because it increases positive emotions (such as happiness and arousal) and reduces negative emotions (such as sadness and anger). At the same time, the influence of a positive path is greater than that of a negative path. We also find that the mediating effect of all emotions in unexpected events is no longer significant, which means that the “concern-oriented” communication strategy may still improve public trust even if it does not rely on emotion as an intermediary. (3) There are major differences in the impact of a crisis communication strategy on local government trust due to the different types of public crisis events. Compared with unexpected events or defect events, the use of a “concern-oriented” crisis communication strategy during the period of a scandal can improve the level of public trust in local government. The paper proposes two different crisis communication strategies, “management” and “concern”, based on an integrated perspective to expand the existing conceptual framework for crisis communication strategies, and it also provides new thinking for improving the communication effects at lower costs. At the same time, this paper deepens the existing literature on the internal mechanism in crisis communication strategies that affect local government trust from the perspective of public sentiment. In particular, a more specific division of public sentiment helps to explore the different impacts of a crisis communication strategy. In addition, this paper's investigation into the heterogeneity of the impact effects contributes to a reflection on the application scenarios of different communication strategies. Only by adopting differentiated communication strategies for different crisis events is it possible to achieve the best communication effects.

An in-depth investigation into the unbalanced structure of government trust is necessary to improve both research in government trust and governance efficiency. Previous research has focused on the differences in trust between central and local governments, but there has been little research on why trust differences arise within the different levels of local governments. This study, which proposes the concept of “differential trust in local governments”, regards the trust gap between county and township governments, city and county governments, and provincial and municipal governments as a function of public perceptions of the image of grassroots civil servants. Based on a stereotype content model, this paper provides evidence that the image of grassroots public servants affects trust in differential local governments based on the two dimensions of ability and enthusiasm. Empirical research finds that: (1) public perceptions of a more positive image of grassroots civil servants is conducive to narrowing the trust gap between high-level and low-level local governments, and this mitigating effect is achieved by increasing trust in low-level local governments; (2) The influence of the image of grassroots civil servants on trust in different levels of local governments reveals differing characteristics, with both enthusiasm and ability affecting trust in. As the level of government rises, the influence of trust in officials gradually weakens, while the influence of their perceived competence becomes increasingly prominent. This paper makes the following contributions: first, it expands the research boundary of the concept of trust in different local governments. Second, through the use of behavioral experiments, it discusses the causal relationship between citizens' perceptions of grassroots civil servants and the trust gap in local governments at different levels, thus providing a new micro-interpretation perspective for in-depth investigations of the sources of trust in local governments of different orders. Third, the research results help to explain how public attitudes toward grassroots civil servants as government agents shift to trust evaluations of local governments and the boundary conditions where this shift occurs, providing enlightenment about how to reduce the trust gap toward different levels of local governments and to improve the governance efficiency of local governments. The research results also provide enlightenment about the management of local governments. Good image management is not only a personal problem of grassroots civil servants, but it can also transfer and affect public trust in local governments. Aimed at the need for targeted image management of government officials at different levels, “soft governance” variables, such as service attitudes and enthusiasm, and “hard governance” elements, such as professionalism and capacity building, are important criteria to repair the trust gap in local governments. For lower-level local governments, it is necessary to enhance the image of the government in terms of enthusiasm, while for higher-level local governments, it is necessary to strengthen the government image management strategy in terms of capacity building.