The coronavirus crisis has improved the lives of virtually everyone around the world, including Finland.
People face many concerns that simply didn’t exist less than a year ago, including quarantines, government restrictions and safety instructions, and extra and job losses.
At the same time, however, according to a recent study, people in Finland seem to be much less interested in personal matters than in the last couple of years.
A survey commissioned by Yle in recent years by the survey firm Economic Research and consulting firm IROResearch asked respondents how concerned they were about their own health, livelihoods and the affairs of their loved ones.
Compared to figures from similar surveys in 2018 and 2019, respondents said they were much less likely to say they were concerned about these personal issues during a very exceptional 2020.
Respondents still had personal concerns this year, but fewer said they were likely to consider them significant.
Shake the survey
For example, in the previous two years of the survey, about 20 percent of respondents said they were "very worried" about their own and their loved ones ’health. But this year, the proportion who said the same was less than 10 percent.
"In general, there are no major changes in this study, so the result is exceptional," Research Director of Economic Research Juho Rahkonen explained that the research methods were similar to previous surveys and the results were comparable.
Some questions are worded slightly differently, which may have had some effect on the answers.
"However, [the changes] were not enough to make such a significant change, and there must be other factors behind them," Rahkonen said.
Similarly, the study found that there were far fewer people "very worried" For family and friends situations, nine percent of respondents said so this year, compared to about 20 percent in 2018 and 2019.
One issue that changed the least was people’s perceptions of their ability to get energy to continue working. This year, 12 percent of respondents said they were very concerned about their ability to stay in the workforce, just a few percentage points less than about 14 to 15 percent who said the same over the past couple of years.
Face uncertainty
"Rarely does an opinion researcher encounter such a situation where opinions change so much, but on the other hand, the situation around the world has changed completely in the last year," he continued.
Author and anthropologist Miia Halme-Tuomisaari wrote a book on the effects of a pandemic on people’s daily lives and said he believes the coronavirus crisis has led people to look at their lives from a different perspective.
"Covid has placed us in the face of uncertainty and forced us to accept that we cannot control everything. Small things that may have seemed very significant a year ago may seem a little less worrying," Halme-Tuomisaari explained that development can be part of a coping mechanism so that people can address new concerns.
"Living in a constant state of emergency is very stressful and it seems [previous] perceptions settle new. Some situations that sometimes seemed exceptional will come" he noted that similar developments have been observed in studies of people living in refugee camps.
Halme-Tuomisaari said that studies have shown that people living in chaotic environments adapt and quickly create new perceptions of normal life.
He said this year’s survey results were surprising to him, but also positive.
"It is a good reminder that we have the resources to cope with exceptional circumstances," Halme-Tuomisaari said.
Let’s make room for new problems
Jenni SavonenA social psychologist at the University of Helsinki said he was wondering whether a change in attitudes could be based on how people compare their personal problems to those of others.
He noted that Finland has so far managed the crisis relatively well and that the country’s overall situation has been slightly better than elsewhere.
"This may make people feel that they do not have similar concerns and should be happy with the situation," he said, adding that people may feel that such concerns are unfounded because things are worse elsewhere.
The wide-ranging effects of a pandemic can also displace people’s own problems, Savonen explained.
"In the face of crises, people usually unexpectedly act in solidarity and [feeling of] the community is growing. In other words, the idea may be that your own concerns are not so important right now because there is a bigger crisis going on," he said.
In 2020, the survey asked 1,149 respondents, compared with 3,000 in 3,000 in 2011 and 2,237 in 2018. This year’s survey was conducted from November 27-30.
Source: The Nordic Page