Abstract
The existence and nature of pandemic fatigue–defined as a gradually emerging subjective state of weariness and exhaustion from, and a general demotivation towards, following recommended health-protective behaviors, including keeping oneself informed during a pandemic–has been debated. Herein, we introduce the Pandemic Fatigue Scale and show how pandemic fatigue evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic, using data from one panel survey and two repeated cross-sectional surveys in Denmark and Germany (overall N = 34,582). We map the correlates of pandemic fatigue and show that pandemic fatigue is negatively related to people’s self-reported adherence to recommended health-protective behaviors. Manipulating the (de)motivational aspect of pandemic fatigue in a preregistered online experiment (N = 1584), we further show that pandemic fatigue negatively affects people’s intention to adhere to recommended health-protective behaviors. Combined, these findings provide evidence not only for the existence of pandemic fatigue, but also its psychological and behavioral associations.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 6352 |
| Journal | Nature Communications |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| ISSN | 2041-1723 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2023 |
Keywords
- COVID-19/epidemiology
- Cross-Sectional Studies
- Fatigue/epidemiology
- Germany/epidemiology
- Humans
- Pandemics/prevention & control