Basic human values during the COVID-19 outbreak, perceived threat and their relationships with compliance with movement restrictions and social distancing

Abstract

This study examines the evolution of Schwartz’s Basic Human Values during the COVID-19 outbreak, and their relationships with perceived threat, compliance with movement restrictions and social distancing. An online questionnaire was administered to a heterogeneous sample of French citizens (N = 1025) during the first French lockdown related to the outbreak. Results revealed a significant evolution of values; the conservation value was higher during the outbreak than usual, and both self-enhancement and openness-to-change values were lower during the COVID-19 outbreak than usual. Conservation and perceived threat during the outbreak were robustly and positively related to both compliance with movement restrictions and social distancing. Conservation during the outbreak emerged as a significant partial mediator of the relationship between perceived threat and outcomes (i.e., compliance with movement restrictions and social distancing). Implications of these results for the malleability of values and the COVID-19 modelling are discussed.