We experimentally investigate how and when the public responds to government actions during times of crisis. Public reactions are shown to follow different processes, depending on whether government performs in exemplary or unsatisfactory ways to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ‘how’ question is addressed by proposing that negative moral emotions mediate public reactions to bad government actions, and positive moral emotions mediate reactions to good government actions. Tests of mediation are conducted while taking into account attitudes and trust in the government as rival hypotheses. The ‘when’ question is studied by examining self-regulatory moderators governing the experience of moral emotions and their effects. These include conspiracy beliefs, political ideology, attachment coping styles and collective values. A total of 357 citizens of a representative sample of adult Norwegians were randomly assigned to two experimental groups and a control group, where complaining, putting pressure on the government and compliance to Covid-19 policies were dependent variables. The findings show that negative moral emotions mediate the effects of government doing badly on complaining and pressuring the government, with conspiracy beliefs moderating the experience of negative moral emotions and attachment coping moderating the effects of negative moral emotions. The results also show that positive moral emotions mediate the effects of government doing well on compliance with COVID-19 regulations, with political ideology moderating the experience of positive moral emotions and collective values moderating the effects of positive moral emotions.

中文翻译：

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危机时期公众对政府的反应

我们通过实验调查公众在危机时期如何以及何时对政府行为做出反应。公众的反应显示出遵循不同的过程，这取决于政府对 COVID-19 大流行的表现是模范还是不令人满意。“如何”问题是通过提出消极道德情绪调节公众对不良政府行为的反应，而积极道德情绪调节公众对良好政府行为的反应来解决的。调解检验是在将态度和对政府的信任作为对立假设的情况下进行的。“何时”问题是通过检查控制道德情绪体验及其影响的自我调节调节剂来研究的。这些包括阴谋信仰、政治意识形态、依恋应对方式和集体价值观。共有 357 名成年挪威人的代表性样本公民被随机分配到两个实验组和一个对照组，其中抱怨、向政府施加压力和遵守 Covid-19 政策是因变量。研究结果表明，负面道德情绪调节了政府做得不好对抱怨和向政府施压的影响，阴谋信念调节了负面道德情绪的体验，依恋应对调节了负面道德情绪的影响。结果还表明，积极的道德情绪调节政府在遵守 COVID-19 法规方面表现良好的影响，政治意识形态调节积极道德情绪的体验，集体价值观调节积极道德情绪的影响。