Funds
Institute of Psychology JUResearchers
Małgorzata Kossowska, Paulina Szwed, Gabriela CzarnekGoal of the project
The Covid-19 pandemic led to a crisis experienced on many levels. However, a crisis does not always lead to disaster - used well, it enables change for the better. The key is wise decisions and the behaviours that support them. Therefore, it is important to understand the mechanisms shaping the behaviour of individuals, groups, and whole societies during a pandemic and when it is over. These mechanisms, in turn, can be described through the prism of individual (cognitive, emotional, and motivational), social (group and intergroup), and institutional (relating to state-citizen relations and the law governing these relations) factors. These factors do not remain in isolation from each other.
On the contrary, they are closely interrelated, and their relationship is dynamic. Therefore, the aim of this project, conducted since the beginning of the pandemic, i.e., from March 2020 to June 2022, is to capture the psychological reactions to the pandemic, their dynamics depending on the moment of the pandemic and the role of the context (decisions on restrictions and individual policies towards Covid-19). We mainly focused on the role of fear, threat, and uncertainty present in the pandemic, their impact on cognition, anti-covid restriction decisions, and intergroup relations (prejudice, helping those in need).