key: cord-0897482-woamqlyg
authors: Reese, Gerhard; Hamann, Karen R.S.; Heidbreder, Lea M.; Loy, Laura; Menzel, Claudia; Neubert, Sebastian; Tröger, Josephine; Wullenkord, Marlis C.
title: SARS-Cov-2 and environmental protection: A collective psychology agenda for environmental psychology research
date: 2020-06-03
journal: J Environ Psychol
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101444
sha: d07c536b1361097a2ed8a14284f19dd7c039c8d2
doc_id: 897482
cord_uid: woamqlyg

While the virus SARS-CoV-2 spreads all over the world, most countries have taken severe measures to protect their citizens and slow down the further spread of the disease COVID-19. These measures affect individuals, communities, cities, countries, and the entire planet. In this paper, we propose that the tremendous consequences of the corona crisis invite environmental psychology to focus more strongly on research questions that address major societal challenges from a collective psychology perspective. In particular, we stress that the corona crisis may affect how people appraise – and potentially respond to – the looming climate crisis. By consistently pointing out systemic links and their human factor, environmental psychology can become central to a scientific agenda of a sustainable ‘post-corona society’. In order to provide a framework for future research towards a sustainable societal transformation, we build on the Social Identity Model of Pro-Environmental Action (SIMPEA) and extend its scope to understand people's responses following the corona crisis. The model allows predictions of previously not explicitly included concepts of place attachment, nature connectedness, basic psychological needs, and systems thinking. It may serve as a guiding framework for a better understanding of the transformation towards a sustainable future.

1. What is the current situation? 54 It is rare that an event affects virtually every human society on planet Earth. Climate 55 change is certainly one of such events (IPCC, 2018) . In 2019, a new virus, SARS-CoV-2, 56 infected people in China and then spread around the world in early 2020. This lead to the 57 'corona crisis' -a pandemic that had, and continues to have, a huge impact on societies, 58 economies, and public health systems. At the time of writing this article, countries such as 59 Italy, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, the USA, Brazil, Russia, Switzerland, Germany, and 60 Iran are severely affected. Billions of citizens are obliged to stay at home, while shops, cafés, 61 bars, and other facilities of social interaction and goods consumption are closed. First 62 estimates from economists point to a severe economic depression (for an overview, see 63 Rabouin, 2020). As far as the 'ecosystem Earth' is concerned, there is some evidence that the 64 corona crisis has positive effects in the short term, such as a reduction in carbon emissions 65 (Le Quéré et al., 2020), but may have negative effects in the long run (e.g., in terms of 66 reduced financial support for climate policy; Evans, 2020; Hein, Peter, & Graichen, 2020). 67 These developments call for stronger climate change mitigation policies, especially now. 68 However, the current corona crisis not only has implications for environmental 69 issues, but is in fact inherently linked to them. Researchers have previously proposed 70 scenarios and evidence that the deterioration of the Earth system increases the risk of 71 pandemics like the current one ( For environmental psychologists who analyse sustainability issues, a key question is 82 how the current situation can be used to understand pro-environmental behaviour and 83 support for appropriate political measures. Throughout the world, many daily routines, 84 opportunities, and processes have changed drastically, but it is yet unclear how they affect 85 our interactions with other people and the environment. It has been argued that it depends 86 on collective choices taken during and after the crisis which of a possible set of futures for 87 our societies might become true: A recovery to the status quo, a collapse, or a transition 88 towards a more sustainable and/or more digitalised society (Boons et al., 2020) . This calls for 89 a collective view on how people appraise and respond to the current and future crises, and 90 ultimately, on their willingness to accept restrictions in the face of the climate crisis. In this 91 paper, we argue that through the corona crisis, collective processes emerge that can lead to 92 new appraisals of and responses to the climate crisis and related policy measures. psyche. In Germany, for example, the COSMO consortium has been collecting weekly waves 98 of psychological responses since early March 2020 and finds increases in the perceived risk 99 of the virus, concern about and fear of the virus, and concern about the economy and 100 society as a whole (COSMO consortium, 2020 perceived as tangible and urgent by many parts of the western society -unlike corona, 149 which hit Western societies with force. 150 At the peak of the corona crisis, the most important scientific and political task is to 151 ensure a functioning public health system, namely, to save lives now. However, the long-152 term socio-political consequences of the pandemic require a research agenda that addresses 153 how we as human beings cope with an altered socio-political environment. This requires a 154 collective perspective on how people appraise and respond to climate change and other 155 impending crises, following the massive societal changes brought about by the corona crisis. 156 We propose a collective framework and research agenda, informed by a social-identity 157 perspective that entails interactions between individuals and their social environment. 160 Social identity is the part of the self that is derived from and defined by our 161 membership in social groups (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) . These groups guide group members' More specifically, the SIMPEA predicts that the salience of social norms (i.e., rules 175 that govern behaviour in groups and societies), collective efficacy beliefs (i.e., beliefs that we 176 as a group can reach our goals), and identification with social groups (i.e., the emotional and 177 7 cognitive bond to social groups) predict the appraisal of a crisis (i.e., is the crisis a relevant 178 risk?) and the response to a crisis (e.g., supporting a policy, see Figure 1 ). The appraisal of in certain emotions (e.g., fear, concern) and motivations (e.g., motivation to stockpile). 197 These emotions and motivations are assumed to affect people's group identification (e.g., 198 identification with a neighbourhood or a "#stayathome" movement) and the salience of 199 social norms (e.g., people should follow the government's new rules of staying at home). 200 Identification, salience of social norms, and group efficacy beliefs (i.e., the belief that we as a 201 group or society can tackle the corona crisis) should then, according to the model, predict 202 actual behaviour (e.g., one's own physical distancing behaviour). 203 Most importantly, however, a response can also be how people react to and appraise ). It has become evident in the corona crisis that not only the scale of change (how 506 many people will become infected) but also the rate of change (how fast people will become 507 infected) is crucial, which is why many virologists repeatedly suggested to "flatten the 508 curve". A public health system may accept gradual change, but would suffer with rapid 509 changes, which would result in a tipping point of crashing a public health system (World 510 Health Organization, 2020). Third, systems thinking includes the ability to realise delays 511 between cause and effect (so-called systems inertia; Meadows, 2008) . This is another 512 phenomenon that has been purported repeatedly: We will receive higher and higher 513 numbers even days or weeks after a lockdown, because SARS-CoV-2 has been in many 514 people's bodies without them noticing. Only after some considerable delay, the long-term 515 effects and infection numbers become visible. If this understanding of delay and effect with 516 regard to climate change increased, this could possibly strengthen pro-environmental 517 appraisals and responses. 518 With these observations, it is likely that people's appraisal of the corona and other 519 (environmental) crises differs as a function of systems thinking. Therefore, we included 520 systems thinking as a potential predictor of these appraisals into the SIMPEA model (see 521 Figure 1 ). Some potential research questions could address the following: Saying that, we also want to stress that an analysis of psychological responses to the corona 594 crisis has to take into consideration that such crises may further increase pre-existing social 595 and income inequalities. While measures and restrictions are relatively similar across 596 countries, the health and economic consequences for people in affluent countries are less 597 severe than those in less affluent countries. Similarly, people with a lower socio-economic 598 status will likely experience more health and economic risks than people with a higher socio-599 economic status (Fisher & Bubola, 2020; Thompson, 2020) . As researchers from a European 600 context -from one of the most affluent countries in the world, Germany -we will and 601 cannot claim completeness or universality of the proposed analysis. We hope, however, that 602 it will motivate and stimulate future research from various backgrounds and discussion from 603 different perspectives. At the brink of corona, a potentially larger crisis -the climate crisis -604 currently looming in the background, requires societal transformation, ideally on a global 605 and collective scale. 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