Covid-19 has undoubtedly had a huge impact on most elements of our lives.  Recent research from IE University explores just how the pandemic has shifted attitudes towards things such as cities, social media, healthcare, and even automation.

The results suggest there is a clear shift in the desire for the big societal issues to be addressed more effectively than they have been in the past and that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.  This is seeing a general shift towards greater social cohesion and cooperation.

For instance, the results show that most Europeans are happy to pay higher taxes to ensure the wages of essential workers are more commensurate to their vital role in society.  There was a similarly strong desire to develop a European Health Union to ensure greater cooperation in areas such as public health.

Interestingly, there also seems to be strong support across Europe for fiscal measures to encourage people and businesses to move to smaller cities and rural areas.

Job security

The results also show a clear desire for greater support to bolster job security, with a clear generational divide appearing that the researchers believe will only widen as digital natives age and their purchasing power grows.

This digitally native generation also showed fewer concerns in areas such as data and privacy.  For instance, they were pretty relaxed about sharing their personal data, especially if it was used for health purposes.  This attitude persisted even if the data was shared with companies such as Google.

Despite this, the younger generation was nonetheless keen on limiting the spread of automation in order to better protect jobs.  This attitude contrasts with the views of older people, who were more relaxed about the spread of automation.

“This year we have seen an overall acceleration and cohesion in sentiment, particularly with regards to healthcare, the support of essential workers and the value given to building greener urban spaces,” the researchers say.

“While there are clearly some disparities based on political, cultural or historical reasons – evidenced by Brexit for instance – it’s clear that the shared experience of Covid-19 and self-isolation has in many cases created a sense of solidarity and responsibility, which was not as evident before. We see this in shared fear of technological unemployment, as well as generational divides linked to tech and socio-economics across Europe.”