Expert authority and support for COVID-19 measures in Germany and the UK: a survey experiment

Heinzel, M. and Liese, A. (2021) Expert authority and support for COVID-19 measures in Germany and the UK: a survey experiment. West European Politics, 44(5-6), pp. 1258-1282. (doi: 10.1080/01402382.2021.1873630)

Abstract

During COVID-19, various public institutions tried to shape citizens’ behaviour to slow the spread of the pandemic. How did their authority affect citizens’ support of public measures taken to combat the spread of COVID-19? The article makes two contributions. First, it presents a novel conceptualisation of authority as a source heuristic. Second, it analyses the authority of four types of public institutions (health ministries, universities, public health agencies, the WHO) in two countries (Germany and the UK), drawing on novel data from a survey experiment conducted in May 2020. On average, institutional endorsements seem to have mattered little. However, there is an observable polarisation effect where citizens who ascribe much expertise to public institutions support COVID-19 measures more than the control group. Furthermore, those who ascribe little expertise support them less than the control group. Finally, neither perception of biases nor exposure to institutions in public debates seems consistently to affect their authority.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Funding: We gratefully acknowledge funding provided by the German Research Foundation (DFG) under grant FOR # 1745 TP 02 LI 1947/4-1 for our research within the Research Unit ‘International Public Administration’.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Heinzel, Dr Mirko
• Authors: Heinzel, M., and Liese, A.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Politics
• Journal Name: West European Politics
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 0140-2382
• ISSN (Online): 1743-9655
• Published Online: 17 February 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 The Author(s)
• First Published: First published in West European Politics 44(5-6): 1258-1282
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License