Expert authority and support for COVID-19 measures in Germany and the UK: a survey experiment

被引:22
作者
Heinzel, Mirko [1 ,2 ]
Liese, Andrea [1 ]
机构
[1] Univ Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
[2] Free Univ Berlin, Berlin Grad Sch Global & Transreg Studies, Berlin, Germany
关键词
COVID-19; expertise; authority; survey experiment; institutions; crises governance; CRISIS MANAGEMENT; RISK;
D O I
10.1080/01402382.2021.1873630
中图分类号
D0 [政治学、政治理论];
学科分类号
0302 ; 030201 ;
摘要
During COVID-19, various public institutions tried to shape citizens' behaviour to slow the spread of the pandemic. How did their authority affect citizens' support of public measures taken to combat the spread of COVID-19? The article makes two contributions. First, it presents a novel conceptualisation of authority as a source heuristic. Second, it analyses the authority of four types of public institutions (health ministries, universities, public health agencies, the WHO) in two countries (Germany and the UK), drawing on novel data from a survey experiment conducted in May 2020. On average, institutional endorsements seem to have mattered little. However, there is an observable polarisation effect where citizens who ascribe much expertise to public institutions support COVID-19 measures more than the control group. Furthermore, those who ascribe little expertise support them less than the control group. Finally, neither perception of biases nor exposure to institutions in public debates seems consistently to affect their authority.
引用
收藏
页码:1258 / 1282
页数:25
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