Social value orientations and public confidence in institutions: A young democracy under the imprint of COVID-19

Abstract

Social value orientations (SVOs) of a society determine peoples' behaviour and are critical for young democracies in crises. This paper draws on the Maldives Values in Crisis survey, conducted during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic. SVOs assessed using the Schwartz Personal Values Questionnaire shows that Maldivian society weigh slightly towards prosocial. Urban-rural, age, and gender determine the SVOs on the dimension of Openness to change versus Conservation while age and gender determine the SVOs on Self-enhancement versus Self-transcendence dimension. Confidence in the public institutions were moderate and not associated with the SVOs. The moderate level of SVOs and confidence in institutions reflects the democratic landscape of the country. Although prosocial SVOs are favourable for implementing containment measures of the pandemic, without a strong value orientation towards conservation and self-transcendence, and confidence in the institutions, the country faces the risk of non-compliance to measures and escalation of the crisis.

The role of social value orientation in modulating vaccine uptake in the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study

“…There is ample evidence that social value orientations determine public behaviour, particularly in the pandemic situation (Ibanez and Sisodia 2020 ; Leder et al 2020 ; Wolf et al 2020 ). Findings from the current research context in the early stages of the pandemic showed that the social value orientations of the society were prosocial, and though not particularly strong, leaned towards conservation and self-transcendence values such as benevolence, security, conformity, tradition and universalism (Moosa et al 2021 ). It is proposed that when a society’s social value orientations conform to conservation and self-transcendence values, social responsibility and compromise is reflected in public behaviour (Ibanez and Sisodia 2020 ; Lake et al 2021 ).…”

“…Previous studies have observed that, in the higher order values dimension of conservation versus openness to change, the Maldivian society tilts towards conservation (Moosa et al 2021 ). This indicates stronger attachment to tradition, conformity to authority and security.…”

“…The findings did not show any significant association between vaccine uptake and confidence in government, health sector or experts. This is perhaps a reflection of the moderate level of confidence in public institutions that was also observed early in the pandemic (Moosa et al 2021). However, this aspect needs further exploration in future studies.…”

“…While this is so, there is a limited understanding of the social drivers behind vaccine uptake, particularly when previous studies during the pandemic had shown only a moderate level of trust in government institutions and compliance to public health measures in the Maldives (Moosa et al 2021 ). Models of behaviour change identify that vaccination behaviour is influenced by deep-rooted factors such as moral values, ideology and identity (Yale Institute of Global Health 2020 ).…”

“…Social value orientations act as the guiding moral principle for individual behaviour, and have been demonstrated to influence personal behaviour particularly at times of crisis (Moosa et al 2021;Wolf et al 2020). Schwartz (1992) posits that value orientations operate in a motivational continuum from the social focus to personal.…”