In the UK, public\ncompliance\nwith safety measures is high<\/a>, the handling of the situation different. Can\nwe nonetheless find similar partisan effects as seen in the US? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the first\nCOVID-19 cases in the UK occurred quite early in the year, the UK government\nreacted relatively late with implementing strict measures to tackle the spread\nof the virus. While other European countries had already started to act, the UK\nmight have been \u2018too\nbusy with Brexit<\/a>\u2019 preparations and\ncelebrations to shift its attention to COVID-19. The official statement that\nwould align the country with others and apply stronger measures was only\nannounced on the 23rd<\/sup> of March<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A national survey\n(Hope\nNot Hate<\/em><\/a>) revealed that while a third of the people did not seem to have\nfaith in how the government dealt with the situation, 74% of those that\nsupported the Conservative Party in the UK General Election 2019 were positive\nabout how the government handled the situation. Interestingly, so were 29% of\nLabour voters. According to YouGov,<\/em> 55% of the respondents also seemed\nto be supportive\nof PM Boris Johnson<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a survey of 200 participants I conducted on 26th<\/sup> March 2020 investigating attitudes and beliefs in light of the UK General Election 2019, I found similar results: Conservative Party supporters were significantly more satisfied[1]<\/a> with the UK government’s response to COVID-19, with 77% of Conservative Party and 38% of Labour Party supporters being slightly to highly satisfied. Besides this, participants’ identification as \u2018British\u2019 was a significant factor in explaining the satisfaction with the government’s response (see table 1, Model 1). <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, party loyalty as an explanation might only be half of the story; when I additionally included collective psychological empowerment (measured as group efficacy and the experience of joy at success) as a predictor, I found that, first, identifying as \u2018British\u2019 remained a significant factor, but also that, second, party support did not seem to play a significant role anymore. Instead, the empowerment measures turned out to be significant key predictors of satisfaction with the UK government’s response to COVID-19 (see table 1, Model 2). This seems to be in line with a recent US study that found that party support alone only had an indirect influence on the lack of COVID-19 threat perception, but that instead underlying political beliefs connected this relationship with mistrust towards the government being the only belief without this effect. Instead, the authors suggest that it was more important \u2018how [participants] feel<\/em> about governmental policy choices\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, the outbreak of COVID-19 affects everybody’s life and research has shown that during disasters, people can perceive a sense of common fate<\/a>. This might make people also more aware of the superordinate in-group (\u2018the British\u2019) and explain why in-group identification turned out to be a key factor for satisfaction and why a third of the Labour voters expressed their approval for the Conservative government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But how can the empowerment\neffect, assessed in light of the general election, be explained concerning the current\nsituation? <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Conservative Party was not only supported by longstanding designated voters, but also by people that were attracted by its controversial manifesto to leave the EU for good. After the party won the election with an overwhelming majority, we would assume that Conservative voters expected nationwide support for their views and believed that change (\u2018get Brexit done\u2019) was now possible. In this way, Conservative voters saw their values realized against opponent<\/a> views and parties. The latter were defeated, which, in turn, can lead to the experience of disempowerment<\/a> amongst its voters. My study results reflect this: Conservative voters expressed significantly more joy at success and group efficacy compared to Labour voters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Interestingly, these empowerment effects were established over three months after the election took place. Previous research found that the endurance of empowerment depends on a stable realization and maintenance of the aspired change in social relations<\/a>. The electoral win strengthened the Conservative Party to unobstructedly enact these changes since, \u2013 \u2018come what may\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let’s summarise: Identification with the Conservative Party might still be present but superseded by the perception that change is possible and by the experience of positivity amongst its voters, and this effect was enduring. This might explain why satisfaction with the government’s response to COVID-19 in March 2020 was accounted for by collective empowerment, over party support. Thus, the discussion around public approval based on partisan effects might only need to be extended by the social-psychological effects of (enduring) collective empowerment. We live in rapidly changing times though, and the UK government has recently come under increased criticism for its delayed reaction<\/a>, missed meetings and deadlines, as well as for clinging on the EU exit<\/a>, even at the expense of public health. Therefore, one might see whether satisfaction with its handling remains and if empowerment effects are unconditionally robust to changes over time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n [1]<\/a> This was based on one question asking participants how satisfied they were with the UK government’s response to COVID-19. However, the question was not further specified so that we cannot say whether participants were satisfied with the pace of the government’s action or the lockdown regulations implemented three days before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Carina\u00a0Hoerst is a PhD student in Social Psychology under the supervision of Prof John Drury. She is part of the Crowds and Identities Group<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/files\/2020\/04\/UK-Gov-and-COVID19.jpg?resize=546%2C176&ssl=1\")
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