Fear, social isolation and compulsive buying in response to COVID-19 in a religiously diverse UK sample

ABSTRACT

This study examines differences between Christians, Muslims and non-religious people in COVID-19-related fear, social isolation, and compulsive buying. A sample of 411 participants in the United Kingdom completed a survey consisting of measures of political trust, social isolation, compulsive buying behaviours, fear of COVID-19 and their preferred source of information regarding COVID-19. Christians reported a stronger social network, more political trust but more fear of COVID-19 than non-religious people, and Muslims reported more fear of COVID-19 and more compulsive buying than non-religious people. Non-religious people accessed more varied sources of information regarding COVID-19 than Christians and Muslims. Finally, source of information regarding COVID-19 affected levels of political trust, fear of COVID-19, social isolation and compulsive buying behaviours. Religious groups exhibit varying levels of fear, social isolation and compulsive buying. Public health messaging and awareness-raising campaigns tailored to particular religious groups may be effective in reducing the psychological burden of COVID-19.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• fear
• social isolation
• compulsive buying
• religion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/ Accessed 30 March 2020.

2 It is acknowledged that there are diverse understandings of “no religion” – while some people understand this as non-involvement in a religious community, others may equate this with atheism, and some may differentiate between religion and spirituality. In both the UK Census data and the present study, “no religion” indicates a general lack of identification with any religious group.