LAUSR

Significance During the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has experienced significant social and political unrest. Here, we show that individual-level discontent with the political system was related to feelings of “pandemic fatigue.” This “fatigue” varied with level of restrictions and severity of the epidemic but also grew as the pandemic prolonged. It fueled distrust in the government, conspiracy beliefs, and support for protests. Prior to the pandemic, several Western countries already faced increasing political destabilization. Our findings raise concerns that the pandemic will further undermine the political stability of Western countries. Furthermore, they highlight the importance of integrating the social sciences into pandemic management in order to buffer fatigue and counteract further increase in political discontent.