The ‘Hermit Kingdom’ of Western Australia is suffering from late onset pandemic stress.

The Forethought February 2022 Mind and Mood pulse report has found that Australia’s most isolated state is feeling the delayed effects of the pandemic.

While Normality was on the rise in February for the majority of the country, WA declined on this measure and with rising case counts despite perpetually closed borders, for the first time throughout the pandemic, has a lower sense of Normality than all other states.

Coinciding with a decline in Normality for our largest state, between Jan and Feb WA experienced a shift toward negative emotions including heightened Anxiety and Sadness. Western Australia’s Resting Emotional Profile is now far more negative than the National Feelings Calibration Benchmark, measured by Forethought prior to the onset of COVID-19.

It is also now less positive than all other states for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.

Forethought GM Rachel Edwardes commented: ‘It appears that rising COVID-19 case counts, coupled with a comparatively slow vaccination rate may have had an effect on the WA population which, up until this point has been shielded from the realities of the pandemic’.

‘The sudden re-commitment by the WA State Government to a hard border stance in February may also have had an impact on Emotional profile measures such as Anxiety, which increased amid this uncertainty’.

ABOUT THE RESEARCH

In our Mind & Mood study, Forethought has been tracking Australia’s sense of Normality since 27 March 2020 when our world was first shocked by the COVID-19 pandemic. We have been taking a regular pulse of national mind and mood and have now surveyed over 22,000 Australians.

ABOUT FORETHOUGHT

Forethought is a leading customer and marketing analytics and strategy advisory firm. With the largest marketing science team in Australia, Forethought partners 80 clients in Australia to drive customer and market share growth via providing the evidence and CMO advisory support focused on customer acquisition and retention strategy and market share growth. In North America, Forethought partners with the fastest growing airline, JetBlue as well as several category leading brands.