Impact of Providing Scientific Information during the COVID-19

1.    Background

COVID-19 data analysis 5 series will focus on how emergency measurements during the COVID-19 influence the nationalism around the world. To illustrate, we will analyze the survey results of opinions of global citizens whether they perceive a certain policy will lead a country to nationalism or citizens’ cooperation. International cooperation is occasionally disturbed by countries with strong and offensive nationalism, and sometimes, even a central government cannot control the national outrage triggered by nationalistic sentiment. Even worse, irrational nationalism would bring about racism and xenophobia, which severely undermines the free and open market around the globe. On the contrary, cooperation among citizens and governments would enhance the effectiveness of abating the crisis and it will help fast recovery from an emergency to everyday life.

With the COVID-19 outbreak, many countries have been suffering from fake and exaggerated information, leading citizens into panic and fear. It is only scientific and accurate information that can alleviate people’s immoderate tension and surprise. Then what would global citizens think of the impact of providing scientific information by the government?

2.    Research Topic

In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is of importance for a government to make a rapid measurement to fight against the virus. However, it is also of equal significance to think of ramifications of the emergency policies and people’s support. This section will analyze how global citizens see scientific information provided by governments, especially how people assess the policy’s influence on a country’s nationalism and civilianism during the COVID-19 crisis.

3.    Questionnaire Used

Survey Question II-7: “While fighting against a global pandemic like COVID-19, a country may begin to follow either a state-centric and chauvinist path, or a democratic path based on citizen participation. In terms of providing scientific information by governments, what direction do you expect the following policies/trends to take?”

The answers consist of a 10-point scale, with higher scores indicating an individual believes the policy will lead citizens to democratic/participatory citizenship and lower scores demonstrating a person acknowledges the measure will result in citizens’ state-centric/chauvinistic.

4.    Major Outcomes

Table 1: Scientific Information – Nationalism Index (SINI) and Scientific Information – Civilianism Index (SICI) by Citizens of 30 Global Cities

 

Respondents are asked to choose one score to represent their ideas on the question, and the average scores of each city indicate the Scientific Information – Civilianism Index (SICI). It demonstrates that how much do citizens of a city consider providing scientific information by the government will cause citizens’ cooperation and participation amid the crisis, and the higher the score is, the more individuals think the measurement will have a positive effect on society. Meanwhile, the reverse scaling was used in the Scientific Information – Nationalism Index (SINI), which means that 11 minus SICI is the SINI. Similarly, the higher the SINI score is, the more a citizen speak ill of the policy under the democratic and liberal principles. Finally, the numerical differences between the two scores were calculated in order to show which side a city is putting more significance. To illustrate, the higher a numerical difference is, the more citizens of the city underscore the above-mentioned policy in the course of the pandemic crisis.

Table 2: Average Scientific Information – Civilianism Index (SICI) by Region

The scores in the table are the average Scientific Information – Civilianism Index (SICI) of the global citizens by region. To be specific, the lowest score of 5.29 was rated by South/Southeast Asian citizens on average. It exhibits that people in this region least likely to deem that the scientific information will have a positive effect on civilianism compared to other regions in the world. On the contrary, the highest score of 6.39 was rated by Latin American citizens, which illustrates that people here are most likely to highlight a certain policy and believe the measurement would lead to citizens’ cooperation in society.

Figure 1: Bar Graph of Average Scientific Information – Civilianism Index (SICI) by Region

 

Figure 1 is the visualized graph of Table 2, and the orange line is the world average Scientific Information – Civilianism Index (SICI). That Latin American citizens think highly of the citizens’ privacy is evidenced by the figure, and the importance is emphasized followed by Europe, East Asia, Oceania, North America, and South/Southeast Asia. These are generalized scored by region, and therefore, for more detailed analysis, let’s see each city’s score of SICI and SINI.

Figure 2: Line Graph of Scientific Information – Nationalism Index (SINI) and Scientific Information – Civilianism Index (SICI)

 

This figure is a visualized version of Table 1, and the most outstanding finding of Figure 2 is that South Korea, Southern Europe, and Latin America, represented by Seoul and Daegu, Madrid, Rome, Lisbon, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, and Santiago show a huge gap between the impact of scientific information provided by governments. It means that citizens of these regions generally regard that scientific information will lead society into the cooperative status and urge people to actively participate in mitigating the virus spread. Meanwhile, other cities are holding divergent opinions regarding the ramification of scientific information.

Figure 3: Bar Graph of Numerical Difference between Scientific Information – Civilianism Index (SICI) and Scientific Information – Nationalism Index (SINI)

 

The differences between SICIs and SINIs are drawn as a bar graph, shown in Figure 3. The orange bar indicates the global average difference score (0.55). Cities with negative numerical differences are marked with red bars, indicating citizens of that city believe that the scientific information will lead a country to nationalism and prevent cooperation among people and countries; yet, cities with blue bars express that the true and reliable information is effective in a way of stimulating the cooperation and participation on preventing the further spread of the coronavirus. To be more specific, all Latin American people reckon that knowing scientific information regarding COVID-19 will have a positive impact on society, whereas citizens in Taipei, Jakarta, Singapore, Vienna, London, Manila, Los Angeles, Cape Town suppose that the scientific information may not positively affect the society and lead people to nationalism. Besides, except for Latin America, there are no constant characteristics by region. For instance, New York citizens think that scientific information would lead a country to civilianism, while people in Los Angeles concluded that accurate information may lead society into nationalism.

5.    Summaries and Further Tasks

a.     Data analysis shows contradicting views on the impact of scientific information by global citizens.

b.     Citizens in Taipei, Jakarta, Singapore, Vienna, London, Manila, Los Angeles, Cape Town suppose that the scientific information may not positively affect the society and lead people to state-centric nationalism, which obstructs further cooperation in international society. Other than these cities, along with Latin American cities conclude that the scientific information will lead citizens to be more participative and cooperative in abating the COVID-19 pandemic.

c.     Latin American average SICI is higher than the global average, indicating people here are confident in scientific information impact.

d.     The study is limited to descriptive research, and therefore, a more detailed explanative investigation is required to further understand the global citizens’ consciousness presented above. For instance, why citizens in Latin America are affirmative about the impact of scientific information? Why people in some cities think that scientific information will lead citizens to state-centric nationalism rather than cooperative civilianism?