Solidarity in times of a pandemic? A comparative longitudinal study on values and behaviours (SolPan)

The COVID-19 pandemic poses unprecedented challenges for policymakers, public health officials, and societies. The social and economic effects are likely to be felt for years to come. Solidarity has been frequently referred to in designing pandemic response measures; however, little is known about whether, and if so how, solidarity is a value that informs people's behaviours and what other values might play a motivational role. As part of the SolPan consortium of nine European countries, this project aims to explore how people react to and evaluate policy measures that have been introduced in Germany and the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Further, the project evaluates whether, and if so how and why people accept, resist, or take additional actions of their own initiative beyond the official advice by governments. The goal is an in-depth examination of these questions using a mixed methods approach. The study will be conducted in two phases, comprised of qualitative research methods in the first phase (semi-structured interviews), followed by a quantitative element (development and completion of a large-scale, representative survey) in a second phase of the study, in two German-speaking cohorts. Results will be discussed for their national implications and compared with findings from the other countries in the consortium.