Loss of trust, democracy under pressure? At the final conference of the PEPP-COV project, researchers discussed current findings on democratic resilience, political exhaustion, and social inequality in times of crisis. Contributions from various scientific disciplines show how political attitudes, social trust, and participation have changed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
As part of the PEPP-COV joint project (“Political Attitudes and Political Participation in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic”), key project results were presented in an interdisciplinary final workshop and discussed with researchers from various disciplines. Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMFTR), the PEPP-COV joint project will continue until the end of 2025, using data from the National Education Panel Study (NEPS) to investigate the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on political attitudes, social trust, and democratic participation in Germany. Using six selected presentations as examples, participants from academia and practice discussed not only the PEPP-COV results but also findings from thematically related research projects.
The event was organized by the PEPP-COV joint project: the two project teams from the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) and the Else Frenkel-Brunswik Institute (EFBI) at the University of Leipzig.
Changing political attitudes
The conference opened with a panel discussion on changing political attitudes in the wake of the pandemic. PEPP-COV project leader Prof. Dr. Gundula Zoch (Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg and LIfBi) presented the joint project and its key findings based on quantitative analyses of NEPS data. The project results of the PEPP-COV team at LIfBi show significant changes in trust in state institutions and the media over the course of the pandemic (a summary of the analyses can be found in the LIfBi transfer report on PEPP-COV here). While there are clear differences in trust dynamics with regard to educational background, the changes in trust between eastern and western Germany are only slight.
PEPP-COV project staff member Dr. Steffen Wamsler (LIfBi) supplemented Zoch's introductory remarks in his presentation on similarities and differences among people with a pronounced belief in conspiracy theories. The analyses based on NEPS data show that low social trust and a subjective feeling of time overload towards the end of the pandemic were key drivers of stronger belief in conspiracy theories.
In the other presentations of the first panel, Prof. Dr. Maximilian Filsinger (Université Catholique de Lille) presented initial findings on the influence of emotions such as fear and anger on acceptance of vaccinations and on social polarization during the pandemic. Franziska Graf (Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen) explained how politicization and depoliticization have shifted under the influence of early pandemic policy decisions. She thus makes an important empirical contribution to the question of how democratic conflicts in times of crisis can shape public opinion and long-term political preferences. Jacqueline Dombrowski (Christian Albrecht University of Kiel) presented initial findings on how income levels and voting decisions were linked at the district level during the pandemic.
Research focuses on particularly affected groups
The second panel focused on the experience of the pandemic from the perspective of particularly affected groups. PEPP-COV project partners Dr. Johannes Kiess and Dr. Piotr Kocyba (EFBI) used qualitative interviews to illustrate the self-described political exhaustion of parents of school-age children and adolescents. Their everyday lives during the pandemic were often characterized by excessive demands, isolation, and psychological stress. The presentation made it clear that ongoing stressful situations can lead to a decline in political and social participation among particularly vulnerable groups. These processes tend to be gradual, but could become all the more relevant for the legitimacy of the political system in the long term. In the final presentation of the conference, Ali Simon (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich) spoke about the often overlooked role of cleaning staff, who, despite performing systemically important tasks, received little social or material recognition—even though they made an important contribution to pandemic management under difficult conditions.
Strengthening social resilience
The concluding discussion made it clear that many crisis-related dynamics have persisted beyond the pandemic. The multiple crises pose particular challenges in terms of identifying clear mechanisms of action in scientific analysis – not least because suitable long-term data is often lacking or limited in its analytical depth with regard to individual influencing factors. However, it is undisputed that the functionality of infrastructure, for example in education or healthcare, is a decisive factor in crisis management and that crisis prevention measures must also be implemented in this area. The role of the social sciences is to use sound research to provide impetus for strengthening social resilience in order to reinforce the sense of belonging and participation in a society increasingly marked by crises.
More about the project
Conference program
Transfer report