39: World After Covid series: Negative Consequences (Part I) - Social Inequality, Loneliness, Economic Hardships, and Despair

Which domain or aspect of social life will show the most significant negative societal and/or psychological change in response to the pandemic?

Igor and Charles share and discuss responses from 57 of the world's leading behavioral and social scientists, collected as part of the World After Covid project. Each episode, four responses are selected. This time, the conversation covers themes of social inequality, loneliness, economic hardships, and despair in the midst of the pandemic. Igor assesses 3 sharply contrasting visions of the future, and Charles reflects on the idea of pandemics as the downside of something mostly very beneficial - the highly social nature of our species.

Featuring:

Azim Shariff, Associate Professor and  Canada Research Chair of Moral  Psychology at the University of British Columbia, and director of the Center for Applied Moral Psychology

Nicholas Christakis, Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University

Roy Baumeister, Professor of Psychology at the University of Queensland

Veronica Benet Martinez, Endowed position as an ICREA Professor at Pompeu Fabra University, where she is head of the Behavioral and Experimental Social Sciences research group Links: World After Covid site

Igor Grossmann's homepage — interactive visualizations and analysis on the World After Covid project

Expert Predictions of Societal Change: Insights from the World after COVID Project - Grossmann, Twardus, Varnum, Jayawickreme, McLevey (2021, in press)

Everyone Was Wrong on the Pandemic’s Societal Impact: Foreign Policy - Varnum, Hutcherson, Grossmann (2021)

Estimating societal effects of COVID-19 - Hutcherson, Sharpinsky, Varnum, Rotella, Wormley, Tay, Grossmann (2021, preprint)

How Life Could Get Better (or Worse) After COVID (berkeley.edu)

Words of wisdom: 4 tips from experts on how to endure until the COVID-19 pandemic ends (The Conversation)

Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live By Nicholas A. Christakis · 2020

Azim Shariff Interview — full interview and transcript on the World After Covid site

Nicholas Christakis Interview — full interview and transcript on the World After Covid site

Roy Baumeister Interview — full interview and transcript on the World After Covid site

Veronica Benet Martinez Interview — full interview and transcript on the World After Covid site