TY - JOUR

T1 - Development and validation of the pandemic fatigue scale

AU - Lilleholt, Lau

AU - Zettler, Ingo

AU - Betsch, Cornelia

AU - Böhm, Robert

N1 - Funding Information: The Danish COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO) project was funded by grants from both the Lundbeck Foundation (R349-2020-592) and the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Copenhagen (Denmark) to I.Z. and R.B. The German COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO) is a joint project of the University of Erfurt (Cornelia Betsch [PI], Lars Korn, Philipp Sprengholz, Philipp Schmid, Lisa Felgendreff, Sarah Eitze), the Robert Koch-Institute (RKI; Lothar H. Wieler, Patrick Schmich), the Federal Centre for Health Education (BzgA; Heidrun Thaiss, Freia De Bock), the Leibniz Centre for Psychological Information and Documentation (ZPID; Michael Bosnjak), the Science Media Center (SMC; Volker Stollorz), the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM; Michael Ramharter), and the Yale Institute for Global Health (Saad Omer). The study was funded by the German Research Foundation (BE3970/11-1, 12-1 to C.B.), University of Erfurt, Robert Koch-Institute, Leibniz Institute for Psychology Information, Federal Centre for Health Education. Funding Information: The Danish COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO) project was funded by grants from both the Lundbeck Foundation (R349-2020-592) and the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Copenhagen (Denmark) to I.Z. and R.B. The German COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO) is a joint project of the University of Erfurt (Cornelia Betsch [PI], Lars Korn, Philipp Sprengholz, Philipp Schmid, Lisa Felgendreff, Sarah Eitze), the Robert Koch-Institute (RKI; Lothar H. Wieler, Patrick Schmich), the Federal Centre for Health Education (BzgA; Heidrun Thaiss, Freia De Bock), the Leibniz Centre for Psychological Information and Documentation (ZPID; Michael Bosnjak), the Science Media Center (SMC; Volker Stollorz), the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM; Michael Ramharter), and the Yale Institute for Global Health (Saad Omer). The study was funded by the German Research Foundation (BE3970/11-1, 12-1 to C.B.), University of Erfurt, Robert Koch-Institute, Leibniz Institute for Psychology Information, Federal Centre for Health Education. Publisher Copyright: © 2023, Springer Nature Limited.

PY - 2023/12

Y1 - 2023/12

N2 - The existence and nature of pandemic fatigue–defined as a gradually emerging subjective state of weariness and exhaustion from, and a general demotivation towards, following recommended health-protective behaviors, including keeping oneself informed during a pandemic–has been debated. Herein, we introduce the Pandemic Fatigue Scale and show how pandemic fatigue evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic, using data from one panel survey and two repeated cross-sectional surveys in Denmark and Germany (overall N = 34,582). We map the correlates of pandemic fatigue and show that pandemic fatigue is negatively related to people’s self-reported adherence to recommended health-protective behaviors. Manipulating the (de)motivational aspect of pandemic fatigue in a preregistered online experiment (N = 1584), we further show that pandemic fatigue negatively affects people’s intention to adhere to recommended health-protective behaviors. Combined, these findings provide evidence not only for the existence of pandemic fatigue, but also its psychological and behavioral associations.

AB - The existence and nature of pandemic fatigue–defined as a gradually emerging subjective state of weariness and exhaustion from, and a general demotivation towards, following recommended health-protective behaviors, including keeping oneself informed during a pandemic–has been debated. Herein, we introduce the Pandemic Fatigue Scale and show how pandemic fatigue evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic, using data from one panel survey and two repeated cross-sectional surveys in Denmark and Germany (overall N = 34,582). We map the correlates of pandemic fatigue and show that pandemic fatigue is negatively related to people’s self-reported adherence to recommended health-protective behaviors. Manipulating the (de)motivational aspect of pandemic fatigue in a preregistered online experiment (N = 1584), we further show that pandemic fatigue negatively affects people’s intention to adhere to recommended health-protective behaviors. Combined, these findings provide evidence not only for the existence of pandemic fatigue, but also its psychological and behavioral associations.

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-023-42063-2

DO - 10.1038/s41467-023-42063-2

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 37816702

AN - SCOPUS:85173629122

VL - 14

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

SN - 2041-1723

IS - 1

M1 - 6352

ER -