Back to Search Start Over

Will COVID-19-related economic worries superimpose health worries, reducing social distancing acceptance in Germany? A prospective pre-registered study

Authors :
Rosman, Tom
Kerwer, Martin
Chasiotis, Anita
Steinmetz, Holger
Wedderhoff, Oliver
Betsch, Cornelia
Bosnjak, Michael
Publication Year :
2020
Publisher :
PsychArchives, 2020.

Abstract

Governmental measures such as social distancing aim at curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus, SARS-COV-2. In March 2020, a large proportion of the German population supported such measures. In this paper, we analysed whether the support for social distancing would dwindle with economic worries superimposing virus-related health worries in the months to follow. We test seven pre-registered hypotheses using data from the German COVID-19 Snapshot MOnitoring (COSMO) survey, which regularly monitors behavioural and psychological factors related to the pandemic. For the present article, we analysed the German COSMO data for the period ranging from March 24, 2020 to July 7, 2020 (Ntotal = 13,094). Results revealed that health worries decreased over time, whereas economic worries remained largely constant. Furthermore, as expected, the acceptance of social distancing considerably decreased. Health worries were positively associated with acceptance of social distancing, whereas the corresponding relationship was negative with regard to economic worries (albeit smaller and less consistent). Unexpectedly, no interactions between health worries and economic worries were found. We conclude that individual differences in health and economic threat perceptions related to COVID-19 play an important role in the acceptance of social distancing.

Details

Language :
English
Database :
OpenAIRE
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........a63fbda863b09fab22f78784d1eb90d8
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.3148