Why do citizens support corrupt governments and politicians? Even in developed democracies, citizens appear rather tolerant toward candidates charged with malfeasance in office (Chang, Golden & Hill 2010). According to some studies, citizens are willing to vote corrupt politicians out of office, as long as they receive sufficient information (Ferraz & Finan 2008). In this paper, I argue that the effect of information on attitudes toward government corruption depends on social trust. Being convinced that people in general do not respect moral and legal norms, low-trust individuals assume that any alternative leaders or parties will prove equally corrupt as the incumbents, so they do not withdraw their support from corrupt incumbents. Using World Values Survey data, I show that low-trust individuals are more likely to support governments perceived as corrupt
