Jan 13, 2021 08:00:00

Why people keep ignoring lockdown

While the governments of each country are calling for refraining from going out while the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) is rampant, it is often reported that people are still lining up in downtown areas and shops. It has been.

The Guardian , a large British letter, analyzes the cause of this situation as 'because people's interpretation of the rules is becoming looser.'

'Cummings effect': why are people bending lockdown rules? | Coronavirus | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/11/cummings-effect-why-are-people-breaking-lockdown-rules

For people, the government's call to 'refrain from going out' is a psychological burden. According to a psychology expert interviewed by The Guardian, 'fatigue due to long-term burden' and 'complex government message' are the biggest reasons people are ignoring the rules. That is.

Patricia Liddell , a professor of applied neuroscience at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, emphasized that 'people are forced to question the value of observing the rules.' In the UK, the government just praised health care workers but never raised wages, and even though Dominic Cummings , a senior adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, was banned from going out. Despite this, the fact that he stayed in a rural town more than 400 km away from London was revealed, and many people are dissatisfied with the government's response in the country.

In particular, there was strong opposition to Mr. Cummings' behavior, and a study conducted by researchers showed that after the behavior of Mr. Cummings was revealed, public confidence in the government and willingness to comply with lockdown rules dropped sharply. It became clear that . Some of these phenomena are also called 'Cummings effect'. These events have led people to question strict rules, and each has a free interpretation of the rules, Liddell said.

'People are more likely to follow social norms than to follow the rules,' said

Pam Briggs , a professor of applied psychology at the University of Northumbria . We belong to society and what others are. We tend to act by seeing what we are doing. ' Due to the ' broken windows theory ' that if a broken window is left unattended, it becomes a natural environment, and all other windows are also destroyed, and the Cummings effect, people pay attention to the rules according to the behavior of other people. It is said that he is no longer paying.

'Many people don't follow the rules if they aren't consistent and rational,' Briggs said. In the UK, there was a case in which the police said, 'I had a picnic that violated the rules just by walking with my friends with a hot drink, and I paid a fine of £ 200 (about 30,000 yen),' Briggs said. 'People are wondering if the rules are really effective and have lost confidence in the government and rule makers,' he said.

'I think the government needs transparency to regain trust, and I think the government should apologize to the public and admit that they made the wrong rules,' said Dr. Sophie King Hill of the University of Birmingham . It was.