Attitudes towards lockdown, trust in institutions, and civic engagement: A study on Sicilians during the coronavirus lockdown

Italy was the first European country to be affected by the Covid-19. To limit the contagion, an emergency protocol was triggered on March 10, 2020, which imposed a lockdown for 69 days. Many Italians considered the restrictions imposed by the government excessive and unnecessary. We hypothesized that agreement with government restrictions and compliance with imposed rules was positively correlated with trust in institutions, civic engagement, and the sense of community. To this end, during the lockdown period, we administered an online questionnaire to 189 Sicilians. The results showed that trust in institutional organizations and the attitude component of civic engagement facilitate the approval of limitations imposed during the lockdown period and the acceptance of future restrictions. Unexpectedly, the behavioral component of civic engagement leads to the rejection of restrictions and behaviors that could contain a further spread of the virus. Indeed, participants who declared that they were engaged in beneficial actions for their community disapproved of the measures already adopted and were unwilling to adopt future behaviors to limit the spread of the virus.