Sociologists have found a connection between the rhetoric of the authorities and the approval of COVID bans

The tougher the rhetoric of the authorities about the consequences of the CORONAVIRUS infection, the more support they receive for the restrictive quarantine measures that they introduce.HSE sociologists found out

In 2020, the increased emphasis by the government on the dire consequences of the covid-19 pandemic increased the level of support among the population for restrictive measures, but at the same time, authoritarian sentiment in general also grew. This conclusion was reached by sociologists at the Higher School of Economics (HSE) as a result of an analysis of surveys conducted in March-April and November 2020, the Kommersant newspaper writes.

The article "The Effect of Risk Framing in Supporting Government Restrictive Policies to Combat COVID-19" was published in the October issue of PLOS One magazine.

After processing the data, it turned out that the first hypothesis was fully confirmed: when the authorities focus on the dire consequences of a pandemic, the population increases support for the restrictive measures they are introducing.

There is much less clarity with the approval of restrictive measures if they were explained by higher risks for each or for other people compared to personal ones. It was not possible to fully substantiate this hypothesis due to the limited sample. An increase in support was recorded only for respondents with a pronounced pro-social position.

“In other words, the government’s tough rhetoric to approve restrictive measures is more effective than moderate ones, but the slogans “Protect yourself” and “Protect others” were equally effective for the respondents on average, the second one worked better only for those survey participants who, in other respects, had pronounced pro-social values ", - writes the newspaper.