“It’s the End of the World as We Know It”. Pandemic Fatalistic Loss of Control
and Rejection of Social World

Wiktor Soral, Mirosław Kofta

University of Warsaw

To many, the COVID-19 pandemic was like the end of the world. Unemployment, loss of business contracts, withdrawal from personal projects, drastic reduction of social contacts, and changes in daily activities were only a few factors that could build a sense of radical loss of control. At the end of 2021 such circumstances had lasted for almost two years, and chances to overcome the crisis were still fragile. In our talk, we will present data from a representative survey (N = 1016) on how frequent was at that time in Poland the belief that the pandemic will persist, will never end, and will permanently disrupt people's lives. We suggest that such beliefs can form a syndrome viewed as a fatalistic loss of control – that is – a general belief that one cannot overcome a long-lasting uncontrollability. We will present analyses suggesting that such syndrome is closely related to withdrawal from social life, and lower ties both with an ingroup and with all humanity. Moreover, according to the analyses, fatalistic loss of control correlates positively with defensive ingroup identification, rejection of democratic values, and anti-immigration attitudes. We will discuss these findings, with a particular focus on the literature on control deprivation, fatalism, and radicalization.