In December 2019, a new coronavirus spread across the world, leading to the respiratory

infectious disease COVID-19. In many ways, the everyday life of millions of people was turned

upside down. Drastic measures to stop the virus from spreading were taken and different

guidelines were given from authorities worldwide.. The general guidelines and

recommendation issued by the Public Health Agency of Sweden are however not binding. Both

scientists and one of the leading analysis and research companies in Sweden has pointed out

the importance of institutional trust among citizens during the pandemic. Without this trust, do

we follow the guidelines and general advice given to us by authorities? In social science the

opinions on how trust works differ. The theoretical starting points of this thesis are therefore

two oposing theories on social capital and institutional trust: one by Robert Putnam and one by

Bo Rothstein. These theories do not however focus on either students trust nor trust in crisis.

The purpose of this thesis is therefore to gain knowledge about the social capital among students

in Swedish universities during the Corona crisis. Furthermore, the purpose is to investigate if,

and how, students social capital correlates with their institutional trust and if any of these trusts

is correlated to their behavioral pattern during the Corona crises. The study is achieved by

forming and analyzing three hypotheses inspired by theories on social capital. The chosen

method in this study is an online survey questionnaire that collects data from 193 students,

which then is analyzed through bar charts, crosstabs, trivariat analysis and last regression

analysis.

The result of the study shows that there is a strong correlation between students social capital

and their institutional trust during the Corona crisis which goes in line with Rothsteins theory

on social capital. The analysis also shows that students who are actively involved in an

organization has a higher social capital in general than people who are not which goes in line

with Robert Putnams theory on social capital.

Further, the study shows that students with a high trust in the government has changed their

travel habits outside the region in line with the guidelines. Apart from this, most students do

follow the given guidelines no matter what their institutional trust. Neither social capital

correlate in a significantly way with students behavioral pattern in this study.