[LUM#13] “Restoring Trust”
From March 17 to May 11, 2020, France found itself in an entirely unprecedented situation. Eight weeks of lockdown, which everyone experienced differently. How and why did—or did not—the French follow the rules that were imposed? To better understand this thorny issue, Marlène Guillon and Pauline Kergall conducted an investigation.
Why conduct a survey on the lockdown? “Because we were locked down, so we had time for it,” jokes Marlène Guillon of the Montpellier Research in Economics Laboratory*. But above all because, from the very start of this very unusual period, the researcher noticed among her acquaintances that reactions to this new situation varied greatly. “Some people followed the rules very strictly, while others didn’t at all, continuing to go out and gather despite the guidelines in place. So I wanted to find a way to understand these different attitudes.”
Together with Pauline Kergall, a doctoral student at the MRE laboratory, they created an online survey and recruited more than 1,900 volunteers between April 16 and 30. The survey covered topics such as income, work arrangements during lockdown, perceptions of their health, the number of times they went out each week, and confidence in the government’s handling of the crisis; in total, the volunteers answered 57 questions designed to better understand their experience of lockdown.
Trust issue
Marlène Guillon and Pauline Kergall then carefully analyzed the volunteers’ responses. Among the major trends emerging from the survey, the researchers noted that attitudes toward lockdown are directly correlated with several factors, including: the perceived threat posed by COVID-19, the perceived benefits of lockdown, well-being during this period (see box), and confidence in the government’s ability to manage this crisis.
“Overall, 74% of respondents said they somewhat or strongly agreed with the lockdown,” the researchers note, acknowledging that they were surprised by the overwhelming support for the measure. “It seems that this was the only thing that struck them as effective, probably because there was nothing else available at the time,” Marlène Guillon speculates.
Because during the second half of April, the situation may have seemed chaotic: “There was a shortage of masks and tests, and the debate over hydroxychloroquine dominated the media, ” notes Marlène Guillon. As a result, only 30% of respondents said they trusted the government to manage the crisis. A percentage that, incidentally, declined over the two weeks the survey lasted. Trust, however, is a major issue: “Those who said they trusted the government to manage this crisis were also the ones who most strictly followed the rules enacted during lockdown, ” notes Pauline Kergall.
Digital tracing
Trust is essential for compliance with lockdown measures. But that’s not all. The researchers also used this survey to explore French people’s attitudes toward the digital contact-tracing app now known as StopCovid, which was being developed at the time. The idea is to trace the contacts of an infected person using their cell phone. “We wanted to know if the French would be willing to use it by asking two questions: Do you consider this type of app acceptable, and are you likely to install it?” they explain. At the time, 42% of volunteers considered such an app somewhat or completely acceptable.
“Those who found this app unacceptable were precisely the ones who had the least trust in the government, ” the researchers note. “This is a key finding, as it is estimated that 70% of the population would need to install the app for it to be fully effective, ” they explain. This insight could also prove very useful in the event of future lockdowns. “This information could indeed help determine the communication strategies to be implemented to support such measures, in order to restore trust.”
Focus on Well-being
During lockdown, did you feel isolated, depressed, stressed, anxious, or bored? Never, rarely, sometimes, often, or all the time? Using these questions, Marlène Guillon and Pauline Kergall calculated a “well-being index” for the volunteers. “Based on the responses, this index was scored on a scale from 0 to 16,” explain the researchers, who made the following observation: those with a high well-being index who are coping relatively well with lockdown are also the ones who adhere to it most closely. “We notably observed that those with the lowest well-being index were also the ones who reported going out the most, for example,” explains Pauline Kergall. “To improve compliance with lockdown measures, it is therefore important to support those who are struggling with it, for example by setting up remote psychological support hotlines, ” the researchers recommend.
UM podcasts are now available on your favorite platform (Spotify, Deezer, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, etc.).
*MRE: Reception Team 7491 (UM)