COVID-19 and orientations towards solidarity: the cases of Spain, Hungary, and Romania

ABSTRACT

Solidarity is core to Europe's societal organisation and was intensively addressed in recent research. Using data collected before and during the lockdown in spring 2020, we examine whether value orientations towards solidarity changed in three countries (Spain, Hungary, and Romania). Before the pandemic, people in Spain expressed higher solidarity than people in Hungary and Romania. Our argument claims that when facing uncertainty, people react negatively, and turn to egocentric values. However, successful state intervention decreases uncertainty and boosts solidarity. Personal experience of a crisis increases caring for others, at least in the short term. Our findings reveal increasing solidarity in Hungary and Romania and stagnant levels in Spain, thus decreasing the distance between these societies. Direct exposure to the virus and the negative experiences associated with it are related to higher solidarity but in different ways across countries. In Spain and Romania, personally knowing someone who is infected corresponds to higher levels of solidarity, while in Hungary being in confinement is associated with increased solidarity. The duration of the lockdown matters. In Romania and in Hungary, high levels of solidarity at the beginning of the lockdown decreased over time but started to increase again after several weeks into the lockdown.

KEYWORDS:

• Coronavirus
• Europe
• solidarity
• social values
• social change

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Academia Româna [grant number GAR-UM- 2019-XI-5.3-9].

Notes on contributors

Bogdan Voicu

Bogdan Voicu is research professor at the Research Institute for Quality of Life (Romanian Academy) and professor of sociology at the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu. His expertise is in value formation and change, with a focus on how individual and societal contexts leads to changes in value orientations. Member of the Romanian Group for Studying Social Values.

Edurne Bartolome Peral

Dr Edurne Bartolome Peral is a lecturer at the University of Deusto (Spain), Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, in the Department of International Relations and Humanities. She has developed most of her research and publications on the study of political culture, political values and attitudes in comparative perspective, political support and trust, and the application of experimental models.

Horatiu Rusu

Horatiu Rusu is Professor of Sociology at Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu and at the Research Institute for Quality of Life (Romanian Academy). His main research interests and publications are mainly focused on social solidarity, identity, social change, social values, and social effects of European integration in post-communist countries. Member of the Romanian Group for Studying Social Values.

Gergely Rosta

Gergely Rosta is a sociologist and an associate professor at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest. He is also the Hungarian national program director of the European Values Study. His main research interests are religious change and youth religiosity.

Mircea Comşa

Mircea Comşa is Professor at Babeș-Bolyai University, Sociology Department. He has more than 20 years of experience in sociological research, in national and international teams, in academic and private sectors. His areas of expertise are: survey research, social research design, electoral studies, social statistics, and data mining. He is/was involved in several research teams: Public Opinion Barometer - BOP (Open Society Foundation, 1998-2008), Romanian Electoral Studies (from 2009), Exit-Polls (more than 20 Romanian Presidential/Parliamentary/Local elections), World/European Values Survey - WVS/EVS (Romanian team, from 1999), and Comparative Study of Electoral Systems - CSES (waves 3, 4, and 5).

Octavian-Marian Vasile

Octavian-Marian Vasile is an associate professor of sociology at University of Bucharest and research fellow at Research Institute for Quality of Life (Romanian Academy). His research interests and publications target quality of life, lifestyles, and social values. Member of the Romanian Group for Studying Social Values.

Lluis Coromina

Dr Lluis Coromina is an associate professor of quantitative methods at the Faculty of Economics, University of Girona (Spain). His research focuses on survey methodology, social network analysis and structural equation models for comparative purposes. His recent research covers the quality of survey data measurement. He is reviewer and publishes in international impact journals.

Claudiu Tufis

Claudiu Tufis is an associate professor of Political Science at University of Bucharest. His main interests are political culture, electoral behaviour, social movements and research methodology. Member of the Romanian Group for Studying Social Values.