Who do we trust? Differences in types of trust and beliefs in conspiracy theories between vaccinated and unvaccinated Europeans across 17 European countries

A plethora of research has highlighted that trust in science, political trust, and conspiracy theories are all important contributors to vaccine uptake behavior. In the current investigation, relying on data from 17 countries (N = 30,096) from the European Social Survey we examined how those who received (and wanted to receive the COVID-19 vaccine) compared to those who did not differ in their trust in: science, politicians and political parties, international organizations and towards people in general. We also examined whether they differed in how much they believed in conspiracy theories. Those who received (or wanted to receive) the COVID vaccine scored significantly higher in all forms of trust, and lower in conspiracy theory beliefs. A logistic regression suggested that trust in science, politicians, international organizations, as well as belief in conspiracy theories were significant predictors, even after accounting for key demographic characteristics.

Challenges and Opportunities for the Energy Sector in the Face of Threats Such as Climate Change and the COVID-19 Pandemic—An International Perspective

New threats such as the COVID-19 pandemic have brought forth not only threats to human health but also changes to many other sectors of the global economy. Despite strict lockdowns, the highest annual number of global renewable energy installations were completed in 2020, including onshore wind power stations and PV power stations. The development of these two types of renewables is increasing rapidly. Transformations in terms of renewable energy require both governmental and public support;thus, it is important to note that the pandemic did not weaken the public commitment to fight climate change. This article aims to evaluate the actual level of support for renewable energy sources in different countries of the world and how the pandemic has affected public opinion regarding this issue. Our analysis suggests that, regardless of the pandemic, public support for renewable energy remains strong in different regions of the world. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Energies (19961073) is the property of MDPI and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Urban green spaces management during the COVID-19 pandemic: Experiences from Kraków, Poland

SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) has spread all over the world, significantly affecting our everyday lives. People changed their habits during the pandemic and made use of urban green spaces (UGS). Our Web of Science and Scopus queries confirm a knowledge gap in green space planning and public space management studies in the field of UGS availability during COVID-19. Therefore, the purpose of our research was to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on urban green spaces management, identify the needs of the residents in terms of urban green spaces furniture, and assess the accessibility of urban green spaces to propose recommendations for the institution charged with managing urban green spaces in the City (Krakow). To this end, we used an expert interview, spatial analyses, and survey research among residents of Kraków, one of the largest cities in Poland. The survey involved 1350 respondents. The spatial analyses employed geoprocessing algorithms and GIS tools. The results showed that 96% of Kraków citizens have access to urban green spaces within 300 m from their homes. Therefore, UGS are an important part of the City's identity, making their reasonable management vital, especially during crises. The respondents indicated that the existing UGS needed more lighting, rubbish bins, and benches as places of respite. Results of the expert interview showed that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected urban green spaces management. The results may influence urban green spaces management, and the research is an innovative combination of spatial analysis, a qualitative approach (expert interview), and a quantitative method (a survey) proposing new procedures for analysing UGS. © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

COVID-19 vaccination in Brazilian public security agents: are human values good predictors?

PurposeThe authors investigated the effect of basic human values in the prediction of COVID-19 vaccination behavior amongst public security agents in Brazil.Design/methodology/approachA sample of 15,313 Brazilian public security agents responded to the portrait values questionnaire and a COVID vaccination behavior measure. Multidimensional scaling analysis (MDS) was used to observe the order of the predicted by the theory. For hypotheses, the authors ran a series of Structural equation modeling (SEM) with direct effects between values and vaccination rate.FindingsResults suggest that the values of conservation and self-transcendence positively predicted vaccination. A nonsignificative negative prediction was obtained for openness to change and self-enhancement values on vaccination behavior.Research limitations/implicationsData were collected using self-report questionnaires.Practical implicationsInstitutional management should encourage capacitation campaigns aimed at public security agents, enabling a significant increase in vaccine protection for the public security institutions.Social implicationsThe reinforcement of conservation and self-transcendence values lead to the perception of the vaccine as a measure of caring for people in general and for the members of the ingroup, hence motivating the vaccination behavior.Originality/valueThe findings confirm that values encourage individuals to be vaccinated, due to their intrinsic motivation. This relationship did not appear to be clearly tested by previous empirical studies.

Measuring COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: Consistency of Social Media with Surveys

We validate whether social media data can be used to complement social surveys to monitor the public’s COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Taking advantage of recent artificial intelligence advances, we propose a framework to estimate individuals’ vaccine hesitancy from their social media posts. With 745,661 vaccine-related tweets originating from three Western European countries, we compare vaccine hesitancy levels measured with our framework against that collected from multiple consecutive waves of surveys. We successfully validate that Twitter, one popular social media platform, can be used as a data source to calculate consistent public acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines with surveys at both country and region levels. In addition, this consistency persists over time although it varies among socio-demographic sub-populations. Our findings establish the power of social media in complementing social surveys to capture the continuously changing vaccine hesitancy in a global health crisis similar to the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Assessment and Impacts of Air Pollution from Brick Kilns on Public Health in Northern Pakistan

Brick kilns add enormous quantities of organic pollutants to the air that can cause serious health issues, especially in developing countries;poor air quality is associated with community health problems, yet receives no attention in Northern Pakistan. The present study, therefore, assessed the chemical composition and investigated the impacts of air pollution from brick kilns on public health. A field-based investigation of air pollutants, i.e., PM1, PM2.5 and PM10, CO2, CO, NO, NO2, H2S, and NH3 using mobile scientific instruments was conducted in selected study area locations. Social surveys were conducted to investigate the impacts of air pollution on community health. The results reveal the highest concentrations of PM1, PM2.5, and PM10, i.e., 3377, 2305, and 3567.67 µg/m3, respectively, in specific locations. Particulate matter concentrations in sampling points exceeded the permissible limits of the Pakistan National Environmental Quality Standard and, therefore, may risk the local population’s health. The highest mean value of CO2 was 529 mg/L, and other parameters, such as CO, NO, NO2, H2S, and NH3 were within the normal range. The social survey’s findings reveal that particulate matter was directly associated with respiratory diseases such as asthma, which was reported in all age groups selected for sampling. The study concluded by implementing air pollution reduction measures in brick kiln industries to protect the environment and community health. In addition, the region’s environmental protection agency needs to play an active role in proper checking and integrated management to improve air quality and protect the community from air hazards.

Stasis and Sorting of Americans' Abortion Opinions: Political Polarization Added to Religious and Other Differences

Americans disagree on legal abortion now about as much as they did in the 1970s, but their attitudes now sort much more according to political identity. Differences of opinion by religion, gender, race, and work that were key to understanding abortion attitudes in the 1970s persisted through 2021. The General Social Survey shows that first conservatives increased their opposition to legal abortion rights;their mean score dropped 1.1 points (on a 6-point scale) from 3.8 to 2.7 from 1974 to 2004. As conservatives' opinions leveled off, liberals increased their support of abortion rights from 4.7 in 2004 to 5.3 or 5.4 in 2021 (because of Covid-19, survey mode changed, creating uncertainty about the sources of change). Women were significantly more divided by political ideology than men were throughout the time series, but gendered political differences did not displace or reduce religious, educational, racial, or work-life differences.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the importance of urban green spaces to the public.

Green spaces provide people with countless intangible benefits, particularly important during crises. Restrictions imposed in many countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic forced people to maintain social distance, limit travels, and even refrain from visiting green spaces and stay at home at a certain point. The survey in one of the largest cities in Poland, Kraków, was intended to help understand the impact of the pandemic on the importance of urban green spaces to the public. The study focused on the first three stages of the pandemic in Poland, from March to November 2020. Nine weeks of the survey yielded over 1250 responses. Responses to spatial questions were analysed with GIS tools and geoprocessing algorithms. The number of visitors to green spaces during the pandemic fell to 78.9% of the population, which is down 13.1% compared to before the pandemic. At the same time, the percentage of people refraining from the visits fell with each phase of the crisis. According to the study, residents believed green spaces to be important for their mental and physical health. Over 75% of the participants considered visits to green spaces as having a very big or big impact on stress level reduction. The work provides empirical proof of the importance of green spaces to residents, particularly during a crisis. The results can affect urban spatial policies and management of green spaces and can potentially be applied in other cities.

Trusting Others During a Pandemic: Investigating Potential Changes in Generalized Trust and Its Relationship With Pandemic-Related Experiences and Worry.

Generalized trust, the belief that most other people can be trusted, has positive consequences for health and wellbeing. An increased sense of community is often seen in times of crisis or disaster, but it is unclear whether this is the case in the COVID-19 pandemic. The objectives of the current study were to assess whether generalized trust increased in an early pandemic phase compared to pre-pandemic levels, and whether trust was lower in individuals who felt particularly threatened or burdened in the pandemic. We compared levels of generalized trust in a population-representative Norwegian sample (n = 1,041) with pre-pandemic levels from the European Social Survey (ESS). Age- and gender-adjusted expected scores were compared to observed scores, using weighted data. Secondly, we tested whether indicators of pandemic-related strain, perceived health risks, or pandemic-related worry were associated with a lower level of generalized trust. This cross-sectional study was conducted in an early opening-up phase (May, 2020). The observed levels of generalized trust in an early pandemic phase did not differ significantly from expected levels based on pre-pandemic measures. Higher trust was found among individuals who reported personal experience with the COVID-19 disease (tested positive, admitted to hospital, or lost someone to the disease). Pandemic-related worry and a high perceived health threat were both associated with a lower level of generalized trust. These results indicate that personal experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic could influence trust in others, although this link may be context-dependent. Generalized trust is considered to be an important asset in society, and promote health and well-being. As the pandemic evolves, there is a risk that we may lose, or a chance that we could gain, trust, with potential consequences for our health.

Exogenous shocks and citizens' satisfaction with governmental policies: can empirical evidence from the 2008 financial crisis help us understand better the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic?

I examine to what extend the financial crisis of 2008 affected levels of individual satisfaction with governments in general and three policy areas in particular; the economy, health services and education. I use data from the European Social Survey (9 rounds, 2002-2018, 14 countries, approx.195000 observations). Running Interrupted Time Series regressions I find that, on aggregate, there was a decrease of satisfaction with the government and the economy immediately after the crisis, but an increase for health and educational services. Longer term, satisfaction gradually increased for all the four indicators examined. In separate regressions for each country, a consistent pattern of behavior emerges. Where the short-term effect on satisfaction was negative, the long-term effect was positive, and vice versa. The switch, from short-term negative to long-term positive effect, could be attributed to the successful efforts of governments to correct the immediate adverse effects of the crisis. On the contrary, some individuals seeing the problems other countries faced, applauded their own government's short term performance in handling the crisis. With the passing of time however, they gradually became more critical. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments to implement policies reviving the economy and improving services in health and the education sectors, amongst others. Results of this study may be used when measuring and evaluating the effects of the current pandemic.