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Publication - Research and analysis

Public attitudes to Coronavirus – June and early July summary

Published
5 August 2020
Directorate
Constitution Directorate
Topic
Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Scotland
ISBN
9781839609503

This report includes some high level findings from recent polling work on public attitudes to the coronavirus pandemic in Scotland. Reports covering earlier survey work were published on 8 May and 12 June 2020.

View supporting documents Supporting documents

5. Looking forward

Lifting restrictions

Respondents were also asked whether they agreed or disagreed with two statements about how to decide when to lift restrictions. As shown in Figure 23, the majority of respondents agreed with each statement. There was a dip towards the end of June (23-24) but otherwise levels of agreement have remained stable over the time period.

Figure 23: Proportions who agreed/agreed strongly with each statement about lifting restrictions
Figure 23: Proportions who agreed/agreed strongly with each statement about lifting restrictions

Source: YouGov weekly Scotland survey. Base (n=1002-1037)

As shown in Figure 24, since the start of June, the proportion agreeing that ‘time is now right for businesses to start re-opening’ increased gradually throughout June and early July. The vast majority agreed that decisions on when and how to lift restrictions should be based on saving lives.

Figure 24: Proportions who agreed/agreed strongly with each statement about lifting restrictions [14]
Figure 24: Proportions who agreed/agreed strongly with each statement about lifting restrictions

Source: YouGov weekly Scotland survey. Base (n=1002-1037)

Returning to normal

Respondents were asked whether they felt comfortable doing a range of activities in the next month. As shown in Figure 25, there has been an increase in the proportion feeling comfortable going to their usual place of work and with children going back to school. Although the proportion who would feel comfortable using public transport has also increased over the period, the majority of respondents still would not.

Figure 25: Proportions who feel very/fairly comfortable doing the activities shown in the next month
Figure 25: Proportions who feel very/fairly comfortable doing the activities shown in the next month

Source: Ipsos MORI, Scotland data. Scottish base (n=500)

In July, respondents were also asked whether they agreed or disagreed with two statements about restrictions changing and meeting up. As shown in Table 1, in early July, just over half agreed that they were holding off arranging meet-ups with friends and family ( 20% disagreed with this statement). The majority agreed that they didn’t want to rush into doing things.

Table 1: Proportions who agreed/agreed strongly with the two statements shown about changing restrictions
Statements 7-8 July 14-15 July
Even though I can, I’m holding off arranging meet-ups with friends and family as I don’t know if they really want to yet 54% n/a
Even though the restrictions are changing, I don’t want to rush into doing things 77% 79%

Source: YouGov weekly Scotland survey. Base (n=1006-1012)

Finally, respondents were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with two statements about the future. As shown in Figure 26, around two-thirds agreed with each statement. The proportion who agreed that ‘thinking about resuming normal activities makes me feel very anxious’ decreased in early June and has since remained stable.

Figure 26: Proportions who agreed/strongly agreed with the statements shown about the future
Figure 26: Proportions who agreed/strongly agreed with the statements shown about the future

Source: Ipsos MORI, Scotland data. Scottish base (n=500)

Further information

This report contains the final data collected from the Ipsos MORI survey. However the YouGov survey is ongoing and more recent findings will be published in future.

Contact

Email: covid-19.behaviours@gov.scot

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