Stability or change of public opinion and values during the coronavirus crisis? Exploring Dutch longitudinal panel data

Some participants of the public debate have argued that the world before and after the coronavirus crisis will look fundamentally different. An underlying assumption is that this crisis will alter public opinion in such a way that it leads to profound societal and political change. Scholarship suggests that while some policy preferences are quite volatile and prone to change under the influence of crises, core values formed during childhood are likely to remain stable. In this article, we test stability or change of a well-selected set of opinions and values before and during the COVID-19 pand... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Reeskens, Tim
Muis, Quita
Sieben, Inge
Vandecasteele, Leen
Luijkx, Ruud
Halman, Loek
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2021
Schlagwörter: Geography / Planning and Development / Demography
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-27451241
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://serval.unil.ch/notice/serval:BIB_9C177AC03718

Some participants of the public debate have argued that the world before and after the coronavirus crisis will look fundamentally different. An underlying assumption is that this crisis will alter public opinion in such a way that it leads to profound societal and political change. Scholarship suggests that while some policy preferences are quite volatile and prone to change under the influence of crises, core values formed during childhood are likely to remain stable. In this article, we test stability or change of a well-selected set of opinions and values before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We rely on a unique longitudinal panel study whereby the Dutch fieldwork of the European Values Study 2017 web survey serves as a baseline; respondents were re-approached in May 2020. The findings indicate that values remain largely stable. However, there is an increase in political support, confirming the so-called rally effect. We conclude our manuscript with a response to the futurists expecting changes in public opinion because of the coronavirus crisis.