TY - JOUR
AU - Reicher, Stephen D.
AU - Bauld, Linda
PY - 2021
DA - July
TI - From the 'fragile rationalist' to 'collective resilience': what human psychology has taught us about the COVID-19 pandemic and what the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us about human psychology
JO - Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
EP - S19
VL - 51
IS - S1
DO - https://doi.org/ 10.4997/JRCPE.2021.236
AB - A successful response to the Covid-19 pandemic is dependent on changing human behaviour to limit proximal interactions with others. Accordingly, governments have introduced severe constraints upon freedoms to move and to mix. This has been accompanied by doubts as to whether the public would abide by these constraints. Such doubts are underpinned by a psychological model of individuals as fragile rationalists who have limited cognitive capacities, who panic under pressure and turn a crisis into a tragedy. Drawing on evidence from the UK, we show that this did not occur. Rather, the pandemic has illustrated the remarkable collective resilience of individuals when brought together as a community by the common experience of crisis. This is a crucial lesson for the future, because it underpins the importance of developing leadership and policies that enhance rather than weaken such emergent social identity.
PB - Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
UR - https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/522cf91a-83db-48ff-a981-782a5ef2969b
KW - Coronavirus (COVID-19)
KW - Mental health and wellbeing
ER