The corona crisis has hit the UK and the world hard since January 2020, affecting all aspects of society. In addition to the obvious consequences for public health, it is now indisputable that the economic consequences of the corona crisis are serious. It is estimated that by the end of 2021 about 2.2 million workers in the UK (6.5% of all workers) will be unemployed.
Recent research conducted by the KU Leuven (Belgium) in collaboration with the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing examined to what extent the corona crisis affected the uncertainty experienced by employees about the survival of their occupations, and whether this uncertainty differs between generations. Research on insecurity in the workplace has found negative effects on job satisfaction and work engagement, and increased scores for burnout and physical as well as mental health complaints, such as anxiety and depression. Further, the present study questioned whether uncertainty impacted another phenomenon that tends to arise in times of crisis, to which the corona pandemic undoubtedly belongs: the belief in corona-related conspiracy theories. Typical of conspiracy theories is that they are not supported by empirical evidence. Conspiracy theories come in many forms, though during the pandemic specific types arose that claim, for example, that the coronavirus does not exist, or that it was developed in a laboratory.
For this research, generations were categorized into Generation Z and Millennials (18-39 years), Generation X (40-54 years) and Boomers (55-65 years), which largely overlaps with widespread consensus. Data were collected among UK employees through a data collection agency between 1 and 20 December 2020. The sample was spread across the key demographics UK region, age and gender to ensure representativeness. In total, 1373 workers in the UK participated in this study. The majority of the sample consisted of women (53.7%), which was slightly higher than the national average in 2020 (50.18%). Age was distributed across all age ranges in line with the national representation, except for 18–24-year-olds, who were underrepresented (2.6% in this sample vs. 14.02% in the national average). For this reason, the categories of Generation Z and Millennials were combined. A total of 17.3% of the participants was low-skilled, 62.6% were medium-skilled and 20.1% were high-skilled. A majority of 60.6% of participants worked in the private sector and 39.4% for the government. In terms of occupational groups, most participants worked in education (20.2%), office and administrative support (12%), healthcare (8.5%) and management, business and financial services (8.3%).
Results show that overall occupation insecurity due to corona and the belief in corona conspiracy theories are on the lower side (means are around ‘2’ on a 5-point scale). However, there is a strong positive relationship between occupation insecurity due to corona and belief in conspiracy theories (r = .31, p < .01). Employees who are insecure about the future of their occupations due to the corona crisis appear to be more likely to believe in corona-related conspiracy theories.
On the various items measuring corona-related occupation insecurity, about 11% of respondents indicate that they are concerned that their occupation will disappear due to the COVID-19 crisis or that they will no longer be able to cope with it. The percentage of workers that expects that their occupation will ‘change significantly’ due to the pandemic is much higher: 39.7%. Thus, the occupation insecurity workers appear to experience seems to be based on anticipated change rather than the occupation completely disappearing due to the corona crisis.
Regarding belief in a corona conspiracy, the percentages vary between about 8 and 25%. Few believe that the ‘coronavirus is a myth created to force a vaccine on people’ (8.3% ‘agree’ or ‘totally agree’). However, the agreement with the other two items is comparatively higher: a total of 24.8% think that ‘The coronavirus was developed in a laboratory according to plans unknown to the public.’ (14.9% 'agree'; 9.9% 'completely agree'), and 18.1% agree that ‘The course of the pandemic is the result of someone's desire to reduce the world's population’ (13.1% 'agree'; 5.0% 'completely agree').
A significant factor in the extent to which employees experience corona-related occupation insecurity and believe in conspiracy theories appears to be age: Age is significantly negatively related to both occupation insecurity due to corona (r = -.15, p < .01) and corona-related conspiracy theories (r = -.10, p < .01). Furthermore, age is a significant moderator of the relationship between occupation insecurity due to corona and conspiracy beliefs (B = −0.08 (SE = 0.04), 95% CI, [−0.15, -0.01]). Upon closer inspection, results reveal that it is Generation Z and Millennials who experience corona-related occupation insecurity (r = .13, p < .01) and who are more likely to belief in conspiracy theories (r = .09, p < .01). In contrast, no significant relationships are found for Generation X and occupation insecurity due to corona (r = -.01, p = .96) or belief in conspiracy theories (r = -.01, p = .66). When it comes to Boomers, they are even less likely to perceive corona-related occupation insecurity (r = -.13, p < .01) and believe in conspiracy theories (r = -.08, p < .01). Thus, younger generations seem to be the ones who are most adversely affected in terms of occupation insecurity and susceptibility to corona-related conspiracy beliefs.
In summary, from these findings the conclusion can be drawn that the corona crisis appears to impact the degree to which employees experience uncertainty about the future of their occupation, which in turn is related to COVID-19 conspiracy thinking.
These findings demonstrate that experiences in the workplace can have consequences for social domains, and that the situation seems to be particularly challenging for younger generations. Belief in conspiracy theories has been linked to lower intention to get vaccinated and less support for public health policies, which in turn may prolong the corona crisis with all its negative health and economic impacts. Addressing the concerns of the younger generations therefore appears to be a crucial step in resolving the COVID-19 crisis.
This research was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 896341.
About the Author
Dr Lara C. Roll is a Marie Curie Fellow at KU Leuven (Belgium) and an Extraordinary Researcher at North-West University (South Africa). She was an Academic Visitor at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing in January - March 2019.
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