The Influence of Salience of a Threat on the Support for Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions against Contagious Diseases

This paper examines the impact that the salience of the threat of contagious diseases has on Dutch citizens’ support for non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) aimed at battling this threat. During the COVID-19 pandemic, populations in Western countries where the salience of the threat of the coronavirus was elevated, reported high support for preventive measures. This level of support did vary between countries which led to the question of whether the outcomes would be the same for previously excluded countries, like the Netherlands. Analysing how salience influences the support for NPIs can help governments with creating the best and most supported approach to battle contagious diseases in the future. For this research, the emphasis will be on the so far understudied Dutch population. Taking previous literature on the Netherlands and its neighbouring countries, this study argues that the salience of the threat of contagious diseases will increase Dutch citizens’ support for NPIs...Show moreThis paper examines the impact that the salience of the threat of contagious diseases has on Dutch citizens’ support for non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) aimed at battling this threat. During the COVID-19 pandemic, populations in Western countries where the salience of the threat of the coronavirus was elevated, reported high support for preventive measures. This level of support did vary between countries which led to the question of whether the outcomes would be the same for previously excluded countries, like the Netherlands. Analysing how salience influences the support for NPIs can help governments with creating the best and most supported approach to battle contagious diseases in the future. For this research, the emphasis will be on the so far understudied Dutch population. Taking previous literature on the Netherlands and its neighbouring countries, this study argues that the salience of the threat of contagious diseases will increase Dutch citizens’ support for NPIs aimed at alleviating this threat. After conducting a survey experiment, no support was found for this hypothesis since both groups, with salience and without salience of the threat, reported an equal level of support for the implementation of NPIs. Overall, as expected from previous literature, the lowest support was found for implementing a complete lockdown. Unfortunately, these findings were not generalisable to the whole Dutch population. Future research should focus on either sampling a bigger group for a similar study, or on researching what does influence the support for NPIs in the Netherlands if it is not the salience of the threat of contagious diseases.Show less

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The Influence of Salience of a Threat on the Support for Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions against Contagious Diseases