If people are to behave responsibly, the government should offer support, rather than just instructions
- Stephen Reicher is a member of the behavioural science advisory committee to Sage
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One thing is certain. If more people mix together in enclosed, crowded and stuffy spaces, more people will become infected with Covid-19, more will get ill, and some will even die. Five days of mixing at Christmas will inevitably lead to more deaths in the New Year.
What is less certain is how to limit such mixing. Is it best to insist that people cannot meet up in their houses, with the risk that many will simply ignore such regulations, meet up regardless and in doing so destroy any vestiges of trust between the government and the public? Or is it better to bend towards peoples’ desires a little in the hope of retaining some level of control?
