The pandemic impacted our lives immensely. It changed the way we work, commute, shop, socialise, and the list goes on and on. But until now, I haven’t considered that it possibly changed some of our personal values as well.
“Changes in Personal Values in Pandemic Times” - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/19485506211024026 is an insightful longitudinal study that investigates this value shift.
This study conducted on 2,321 Australian adults who completed the pandemic onset wave shows that even values (which are usually quite stable) can change when we adjust to a new life situation. It’s quite interesting that worried individuals exhibited an increase in conservation and a decrease in openness to change values.
It will be fascinating to see if this shift in value will persist over time or we will return to our original levels once the pandemic ends and our lives go back to normal.
Given that Australia experienced a relatively mild pandemic outbreak compared to the rest of the world, chances are this study’s results are an underestimation of value changes worldwide.
This makes a lot of sense and I'm sure has been the case through many major tragedies throughout history!