Life after lockdown: Getting back on track or charting a new course?

How disruptive is Covid-19 to everyday life? How is the French population experiencing the lockdown? Is it magnifying inequalities and affecting social cohesion? The CoCo project sheds lights on these pressing questions by comparing living conditions in France before, during, and after the lockdown. This is the fourth of a series of research briefs, which now cover the entire lockdown period

Has life under the lockdown been a parenthesis or is it the new normal? Beyond whether or not people began to resume their usual activities on 11 May, the consequences of the lockdown experience on people’s attitudes and opinions are the core of this policy brief. Did the lockdown trigger new sociopolitical orientations? Or did it instead accelerate ongoing trends?

- 75% of people anticipate a second peak of the epidemic
- The expectation of a second peak depends very much on individuals’ level of trust in others
- Self-reported well-being rose during the lockdown and increased even further two weeks after it ended
- One-third of our respondents are still working at home even though lockdown is over
- Two-thirds of our sample intend to limit their social interactions in the coming months
- There is very strong support for increased public spending on hospitals
- Wealthier people are more likely to support increased wages for nurses
- Globalization is increasingly seen in a negative light
- Pro-environment attitudes are growing