Mandatory green pass at work, what Italians think: the survey

Compulsory green pass at work, 55% of Italians think it is right to prohibit access to those who do not have a green certificate. A ‘promotion’ that is affected, however, by the geographical location of citizens: it drops to 49% in the North West of the country and rises to 61% in the South and the Islands. This is what emerges from the survey of the EngageMinds Hub, a research center of the Catholic University, which also shows that 60% see the Green pass introduced by the Draghi Government as an instrument of social responsibility, while 56% believe that the green certificate is an effective measure to reduce the risk of infections and therefore useful in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. The EngageMinds HUB research was conducted on a sample of over 6,000 Italians, representative of the population by gender, age, geographical origin and occupation. “From our latest survey it emerges that the Green Pass, approved by just over 50% of Italians, does not reach the basis for a full social consensus – underlines Guendalina Graffigna, full professor of health and consumption psychology and director of the EngageMinds Hub – From the data, large pockets of population emerge that remain uncertain, with respect to the usefulness of the green certificate and the obligation to use it; we could define them as the ‘hesitants of the Green pass’. People – continues Graffigna – who, therefore, show signs of fatigue , frustration and distrust of the system, an attitude that can become problematic in the long term “. According to the survey, “the over-60s represent the age group that differs most from considering the Green pass a violation of personal freedom and a way of the government to control citizens; moreover, seniors feel safer following the introduction of the green certificate. These perceptions are not found for individuals between the ages of 35 and 59. And the under 34, on the contrary, perceive the Green pass as an instrument of privacy violation. On the other hand – as it always appears from the analysis of the EngageMinds HUB – compared to other age groups, the over 60s are the most in agreement in considering the Green pass an effective tool in reducing infections and necessary to access places of social gathering; conversely, about half of the under 34 appears to disagree with the use of the Green pass “. But important information emerges from other data crossings. In fact, from the study by the Cattolica Research Center it appears that “the fraction of those who consider the Green Pass effective in containing infections increases greatly among those with a relatively high income, reaching 65% (compared to 56% of the national average); on the other hand, among those who report a low income, this same percentage drops to 51%. A similar trend is found for the issue of the use of the Green pass in the workplace: 63% of the wealthiest think it is right to make it mandatory, while among the less well-off this fraction stops again at 51% “.” An element to highlight, as it emerges from our analysis – explains Graffigna – is that the qualification of the interviewees does not affect the judgment on the Green pass, in spite of than is usually thought to be also a question of literacy and education “. At the level of perception of individuals, even a law of public order such as the Green pass does not escape the dynamics of the psychology of the person. The research of the EngageMinds HUB shows that those who emotionally appear to have suffered the most from the impact of Covid-19, in short, those who are psychologically more ‘fatigued’, “sees the Green pass as a measure of little use to reduce the spread of infections (51% against the national average 56%) “. There is one last factor which, moreover, during the ongoing monitoring that EngageMinds Hub has activated since the beginning of the pandemic, often emerges as having an impact on behavior. And it is “distrust of scientific research, the health system and, in general, public institutions”. From the data it emerges that “those who reveal this attitude place little reliance on the effectiveness of the Green pass as a tool to control infections, disagree with its use in the workplace and do not see its social utility”, concludes the investigation