The author of the study, Andreas Krafft, knows why social ties in Switzerland were lower than ever before and what the pandemic has to do with it.
Hope dies last – even in the pandemic?
Mr. Krafft, loud your study we stuck together less in Switzerland last year and supported each other less. Compared to the previous year, our willingness to help has fallen by 68 percentage points. Why?
The pandemic leaves us tired and disappointed. After two years we are tired of the situation and looking for answers why it is not over yet. After standing together at the beginning, we are now in two camps that blame each other for the persistence of the crisis and increasingly distrust each other. Because of these social divides, we were less open and helpful last year than we were in 2020.
Couldn’t one also say that solidarity was extraordinarily high because of the 2020 pandemic and has now returned to its normal level?
That is only partly true. Social connectedness has also decreased compared to 2019. But if we assume average solidarity, it can be said that it rose slightly in 2020 and fell sharply the following year.
The sociologist Markus Freitag described the typical course of a crisis: First, people stick together, ideologies recede into the background. The longer the crisis lasts, the sooner the “competition of worldviews” will start again. Were the conditions to fight a pandemic better in the first year?
Solidarity is important to get through a crisis. In 2020, there was a strong sense of community in Switzerland because of the pandemic. A year later, this “fire” has largely died out. We have withdrawn, become less involved and mainly focus on ourselves.
For your study, you interviewed 5,546 people aged between 18 and 80 in 12 different countries. Where does Switzerland stand with its declining solidarity in an international comparison?
Since 2009, Andreas Krafft has been investigating how hopeful people are about the new year.
Unlike in Switzerland, people in countries like Portugal cannot rely on a strong welfare state. They are more dependent on each other and have to take care of each other more. For this reason, social cohesion in these countries is also strong in the second year of the pandemic. In addition, Portugal has the highest vaccination rate in Europe. At the beginning of November, 98 percent of all over 25-year-olds there had already received both doses. In Switzerland it was 72 percent at that time. Because the majority of the population there supports vaccination, there are fewer social tensions in Portugal than in Switzerland.
In countries like Germany and Austria, a split similar to that in Switzerland could be observed. What about their willingness to help in the second year of the pandemic?
Unfortunately, this time we didn’t have any data on Germany and Austria, which is why we could only compare Switzerland with countries that are culturally different. But I assume that social cohesion and mutual support in Germany and Austria have not developed much differently than in Switzerland.
You have published the Hope Barometer every year since 2009. Can hope be measured?
In our surveys, we make statements with which the respondents can agree more or less strongly on a given multi-point answer scale. We want to know how people see the future and are particularly interested in the positive aspects. What do people want? An example: in 2021 we asked if you would like to be able to help other people. From the answers we have gathered that the willingness to help has decreased compared to the previous year.
At the beginning of the pandemic, we were happy to tell ourselves that it would soon be over. We are now more cautious with positive forecasts. Have we lost hope?
In everyday life, we often find it difficult to distinguish between hope and optimism. What you describe is optimism. This can be quite volatile during a pandemic. The hope, on the other hand, remains stable. Most people hope for good health, a happy family, marriage or partnership, a harmonious life, or a meaningful job. These wishes remain even in a pandemic.
Is Switzerland a hopeful country?
Switzerland has a medium-high hope level. In poorer regions of the world, however, the hope that something will change and improve as a result is higher than it is here. We live at such a high level that we tend to be afraid that if our circumstances change, they might get worse.