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Distance, mask, hand washing – the everyday crown consists of rules and prohibitions. Compliance with them can determine life or death. It is complicated if not even the rulers obey them.
There are more than 600 kilometers of train route between London and Glasgow, Scotland. 600 miles too many for someone who tested positive for Corona. The fact that Scottish MP Margaret Ferrier headed to London with corona symptoms, spoke in Parliament there, and even took the train back to Glasgow after a positive test, causes horror in political London. Ferrier’s actions were “completely ruthless,” said House of Commons spokeswoman Lindsay Hoyle, who is otherwise not known for her exuberant temperament.
Ferrier joins a growing list of politicians who are not as strict on Corona’s rules. Ireland’s EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan lost his office after he was caught having dinner at a golf club with about 80 people in the summer. British government adviser Dominic Cummings made headlines with short trips into lockdown, while Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen forgot about the crown curfew while chatting and Dutch Justice Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus celebrated his wedding day in the middle of the pandemic without masks and without distance.
Seehofer dispenses with mask and distance in photos
At the same time, politicians around the world never tire of warning citizens to keep their distance, hygiene and caution. “The rules will only work if everyone obeys them,” stressed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the same week you photographed your own father in the supermarket without a mask. And Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier chided the participants in the Berlin demonstration against the crown’s measures with the words “The irresponsibility of a few is a risk to all of us,” but soon after was forced to ask public apologies that he himself was in a group photo. The holidays in South Tyrol had given up the mask and due distance.
“Especially in these difficult times, politicians are in the spotlight and have an important role model,” says social psychologist Andreas Glöckner from the University of Cologne. They could set an example of desired behavior, “but rule violations also attract special attention from the public.”
The electoral event became a super broadcast event
No politician broke the crown tag as consistently as Donald Trump. The president of the United States is not only reluctant to be seen wearing a mask. He also made fun of Joe Biden, his contender in the US presidential election, covering his mouth and nose so often. Trump relied only on evidence at the White House. As a result, an event at the White House in late September turned into a super broadcast event – numerous attendees subsequently tested positive, including Trump himself and his wife Melania.
After three days in the military hospital and an experimental preferential treatment by the best doctors, Trump now presents himself as the conqueror of the virus: “Do not fear Covid,” he urged his compatriots, millions of whom do not even have health insurance. “Don’t let it rule your life.”
“Uncomfortable feeling of disagreement”
Using the example of the celebrated Dutch Justice Minister, who still called rule breakers “antisocial”, one can see what effects such indifference can have. Many compatriots were outraged that Grapperhaus was allowed to remain in office and got away with a fine. Twenty percent of the Dutch said in polls that they would no longer take Corona’s rules too seriously. According to his union, law enforcement officials have been distributing significantly fewer fines to other crown rule violators since the incident. “It is difficult to explain why people can receive a crown sanction if the responsible minister does not follow the rules himself,” said a spokesman.
The psychologist Glöckner attributes such reactions to the phenomenon of “dissonance”: “A common occurrence of statements such as” It is important to adhere to the rules “and the contradictory behavior creates an uncomfortable feeling of disagreement in the listener”, explains the scientist. . “These behaviors, therefore, can lead to reduced confidence in the rules.” However, if someone sticks to it, it is also due to many other factors, such as how someone feels about state institutions or whether they believe in conspiracy theories.
Scandalous behavior will be punished
As early as 2004, researchers Shaun Bowler and Jeffrey Karp examined how political scandals affect people’s trust in institutions. “If politicians are really concerned about declining public confidence, the easiest solution is probably to change their own behavior,” the researchers wrote in the journal Political Behavior. Voters tended to punish scandalous behavior more than they honor exemplary behavior.
However, conversely, this does not mean that everything will go well if the scandals do not materialize: in Germany, Spain, Scandinavia, France and Italy, there are hardly any significant violations by political elites, but the number of cases of corona and restrictions in public life are very different. Sure.
