The Wrong Psychology?

Stephen Reicher, a member of the UK's SAGE subcommittee advising on behavioural science over the Covid19 pandemic, discusses some of 'Psychology's failures' (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/24/psychology-uk-covid-response). Reicher notes that, in the pandemic, Psychology moved from being an afterthought, to becoming mainstream. It was recognised that, to control the virus, people would need to change their behaviours. Unfortunately, 'folk psychology' (actually opposed by most of the behavioural scientists) carried the day. In at least two respects, things were got 'disasterously wrong'. The first, was using the concept of behavioural fatigue (the idea that people will only comply for so long), as an excuse for not locking down earlier. This concept also resulted in opening up prematurely. The second was calling upon a type-casting predudice to argue that the British Public, unlike their East Asian counterparts, would never accept a rigorous test/trace/isolate system. This mistaken view led to delays in developing an effective process. Reicher also notes the UK government favoured a 'top down approach', where concepts like nudge theory, could be used to 'direct' the behaviour of the general population. The approach assumed that people are incapable of understanding complexity and have to be guided. Reicher thinks that working with and through people, is a much more effective way of dealing with crises. This might well have been a better approach for dealing with the Covid19 pandemic in the UK. It is certainly likely to be more effective method for dealing with the climate crisis!