Emotions, governmental trust and support for the restriction of civil liberties during the covid‐19 pandemic

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic brought unprecedented governmental restrictions to personal and political freedoms. This article investigates individual-level differences in mass support for the restriction of civil liberties during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Employing theories of affect and decision making, it assesses the extent to which different emotional reactions toward the pandemic influenced attitudes toward mobile phone surveillance and the implementation of curfews. We test our hypotheses in five advanced European democracies using panel data which allow us to identify the role of emotions in support for restrictive policies controlling for individual heterogeneity. The results suggest that experiencing fear about Covid-19 had a strong positive impact on supporting these measures, while hope and anger only played a minimal role. Importantly, the findings indicate that emotions moderate the impact of trust toward the government, a key variable for supporting the restriction of civil liberties during the pandemic. Specifically, experiencing fear was associated with higher acceptance of civil liberty restrictions. Further, experiencing fear substantially decreased the effect of trust in the government, rendering those who lack trust toward the government more supportive of civil liberty restrictions. These findings help us understand the psychological mechanisms that leads citizens to swiftly decide to sacrifice their civil liberties in the light of threat. Further, they offer empirical support for the causal role of affect in political decision-making.

COVID‐19 and European Multi‐Level Democracy

“…The most recent scholarship on these three questions increasingly probes their empirical interdependencies. For example, drawing connections between restrictions on liberties and public trust, Vasilopoulos et al ( 2022 ) suggest that the ‘Covid‐19 pandemic provides an ideal testbed for understanding the public’s commitment to individual liberties’ (p. 2). Employing data from Austria, France, Germany, Italy and the UK, they find that ‘experiencing fear about COVID‐19 had a strong positive impact’ on supporting restrictions on civil liberties (p. 2); ‘the findings indicate that emotions moderate the impact of trust toward the government, a key variable for supporting the restriction of civil liberties (…) experiencing fear was associated with higher acceptance of civil liberty restrictions’ (p. 2).…”

Fear, Hope, and COVID‐19: Emotional Elite Rhetoric and Its Impact on the Public During the First Wave of the COVID‐19 Pandemic

“…During pandemics, research has repeatedly shown that feelings of fear and threat increase the likelihood of complying with public health advice, also during the most recent COVID‐19 crisis (Harper et al, 2021 ; Jørgensen et al, 2021 ). Vasilopoulos and coauthors ( 2022 ) found that in five European countries fear increases support for restrictive measures during the COVID‐19 pandemic, even if these measures restrict civil liberties. Other negative emotions, for instance anger, had no significant impact.…”

“…In doing so, research has shown that they make extensive usage of negative emotions such as fear (Widmann, 2021 ). Yet, during the COVID‐19 crisis, increased levels of fear might benefit their political competitors, as it can increase trust in governments (Schraff, 2020 ; Vasilopoulos et al, 2022 ) and compliance with governmental advice (Jørgensen et al, 2021 ; Vasilopoulos et al, 2022 ).…”

“…In particular, fear has been found to be one of the central emotional responses. A number of recent empirical studies found that during the first wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic, individuals who experienced fear or a feeling of threat are more compliant with protective advice (Harper et al, 2021 ; Jørgensen et al, 2021 ), put more trust in governments (Schraff, 2020 ), and showed increased support for restriction measures (Vasilopoulos et al, 2022 ). Hope, on the other hand, can induce a feeling of false optimism which could lead people to underestimate the likelihood of contracting a disease and therefore ignore public health warnings (Wise et al, 2020 ).…”

The Association of Social Emotions, Perceived Efficiency, Transparency of the Government, Concerns about COVID-19, and Confidence in Fighting the Pandemic under the Week-Long Lockdown in Shenzhen, China

“…Besides emotions, people’s perceived efficacy of control and prevention measures, their adherence to control measures, and their attitude toward the government (such as satisfaction with the government, trust in the government, and perceptions of the responses of the government) are important factors associated with confidence in fighting the pandemic [ 1 , 5 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. Previous studies investigating confidence to combat the pandemic suggested that the perceived efficacy of control measures, such as COVID-19 vaccination, and quarantine will affect the execution of these measures, accordingly affecting residents’ beliefs in controlling the pandemic [ 6 , 23 , 24 ].…”