Schneider Sebastian H, Eger Jens, Bruder Martin, Faust Jörg, Wieler Lothar H
German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval), Fritz-Schäffer-Str. 26, 53113 Bonn, Germany.
Robert Koch Institute, Nordufer 20, 13353 Berlin, Germany.
World Dev. 2021 Apr;140:105356. doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105356. Epub 2020 Dec 29.
The global COVID-19 pandemic poses challenges to the economy, politics and public health systems of developed and developing countries alike. However, the latter are less well placed to cope with adverse effects. In particular, important advances towards sustainable development might be reversed. Tackling the pandemic and its effects therefore requires global cooperation as well as solidarity in the form of development assistance. Yet, support for development assistance among donor publics might be dampened by individual health-related and economic worries as well as decreasing trust in government during the pandemic. Against this backdrop, we investigate the possible effect of pandemic-induced worries on public support for development assistance as well as the moderating role of moral considerations and trust in government. Drawing on literature on aid attitudes, and using survey data for Germany provided by the COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO) project from April 2020 (N = 1,006), our analyses show that neither health-related nor economic worries are associated with less support for providing development assistance during the first wave of the pandemic. However, we observe a marginal interaction between health-related worries and trust in government in predicting support for development assistance. For those with high levels of trust in government the effect of worry regarding the loss of friends or relatives on support for development assistance is positive, whereas it is close to zero for those with low levels of trust. We conclude that at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic there was little need for concern by policy-makers endorsing development assistance as neither form of worry correlated negatively with public support for development assistance and trust was high. However, when worries recur and trust in government simultaneously decreases, public support for global solidarity may wane.
全球新冠疫情给发达国家和发展中国家的经济、政治及公共卫生系统都带来了挑战。然而，发展中国家应对不利影响的能力较弱。特别是，可持续发展方面的重要进展可能会出现倒退。因此，应对疫情及其影响需要全球合作以及以发展援助形式体现的团结。然而，在疫情期间，捐助国民众对发展援助的支持可能会因个人对健康和经济的担忧以及对政府信任度的下降而受到抑制。在此背景下，我们研究了疫情引发的担忧对公众对发展援助支持的可能影响，以及道德考量和对政府信任的调节作用。借鉴有关援助态度的文献，并使用2020年4月新冠疫情快速监测（COSMO）项目提供的德国调查数据（N = 1,006），我们的分析表明，在疫情第一波期间，无论是与健康相关的担忧还是经济担忧，都与对提供发展援助的支持减少无关。然而，我们观察到在预测对发展援助的支持方面，与健康相关的担忧和对政府的信任之间存在微弱的相互作用。对于那些对政府信任度高的人来说，对失去朋友或亲属的担忧对发展援助支持的影响是积极的，而对于那些信任度低的人来说，这种影响接近于零。我们得出结论，在疫情第一波高峰时，支持发展援助的政策制定者几乎无需担忧，因为这两种担忧形式都没有与公众对发展援助的支持呈负相关，而且信任度很高。然而，当担忧再次出现且对政府的信任同时下降时，公众对全球团结的支持可能会减弱。
