Public attitudes to coronavirus: April summary

Views on government and information sources

Rating of government

Respondents were asked how good or poor a job various institutions were doing to contain the spread of the virus^[3]. Figure 13 below shows that respondents have been fairly consistent in their high rating of the NHS and their own employer. Scottish respondents have rated the Scottish Government more highly than the UK Government for the past two waves, but ratings for both fell in the most recent week.

Source: Ipsos MORI, Scotland data. Scottish base (n=568-668)

Trust in information sources

Respondents were also asked about the degree to which they trusted various sources to deliver information about Coronavirus. As with the previous measure, Scottish respondents were asked about Scottish Government separately in the latest two survey waves.

Scientists were regarded as the most trusted source. Levels of trust in Local Health Authorities, The World Health Organisation (WHO) and Scottish Government were very similar, though trust in all sources shown fell in the latest survey wave. Respondents in Scotland were more likely to completely/mostly trust information from Scottish Government than from UK Government.

Source: Ipsos MORI, Scotland data. Scottish base (n=658-665)

Trust in Scottish Government advice and guidance

Respondents were asked whether they agreed or disagreed that they trust the advice from Scottish Government. The majority agreed with this statement and this has remained relatively stable in recent weeks.

Source: YouGov weekly Scotland survey. Base (n=1002-1042)