When good news backfires: Feelings of disadvantage in the Corona crisis

Abstract

The Corona crisis is an unprecedented challenge for societies. Lockdowns and physical distancing orders have generated economic, social and health-related consequences in many countries. In this regard, we evaluate how information about positive economic expectations during the crisis affects citizens’ attitudes. Using a real-world survey experiment, our analyses indicate that information about a positive economic outlook and governmental support to mitigate the crisis actually promote people’s subjective feelings of disadvantage rather than reducing them. Interestingly, it seems that information about economic recovery that opens up opportunities may backfire due to increased upward comparisons and perceived competition. Structural equation analyses suggest that this relationship is mediated by critical views about democratic institutions during the crisis. Citizens lose confidence in their governments and democratic decision-makers to uphold principles of fairness after the crisis ends. Our results have important implications on how to communicate measures that aim to deal with the crisis.

Does the internet help governments contain the COVID-19 pandemic? Multi-country evidence from online human behaviour

“…However, over propaganda or information absorbed may reduce their alert to the virus. For example, Filsinger and Freitag (2021) find that information about a positive economic outlook and governmental support to mitigate the crisis actually promotes people's subjective feelings of disadvantage rather than reducing them. Pan et al (2020) also indicate that higher overall information exposure was associated with higher depressive symptoms among participants who were less likely to carefully consider the veracity of the information to which they were exposed.…”

Enhancing Resilience Regarding Depression, Anxiety and COVID-19 with a Narrative Method of Ordering Memory Effective in Researchers Experiencing Burnout

“…As these uncertainties regarding COVID-19 are found across the temporal spectrum, it is to be expected that symptoms of both depression and anxiety would be detrimentally affected [70]. This expectation has been realized worldwide [71] with the current situation in the industrialized world recognized to promote depression and anxiety by representing (in comparison) a previous period of intense gratification of needs pre-COVID-19 followed by a period of relative deprivation [ 72,73] resulting from post-COVID-19 restrictions. In one study, 36% of COVID-19 patients upon admission to hospital care had elevated anxiety symptoms and 29% had elevated depression symptoms [74].…”