Giving dates for when lockdown restrictions can be lifted in England could result in people feeling “hopeless and helpless” if they are not met, Professor Stephen Reicher said.
The member of the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) which advises the Government, said the approach needs to be “more constructive”.
He said: “If things don’t happen on that date then people begin to be hopeless and helpless. You begin to have a sense of ‘look, there’s nothing we can do’ and that sense of helplessness is very damaging psychologically.
“I think it’s far more constructive to say to people ‘this is what we can do to get infections down’, to give people something active to do.”
Prof Reicher, from the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews, said things need to be done “gradually” and “carefully”.
He said: “We can’t do everything at once, therefore we’ve got to think seriously about what our priorities are. And if we do open everything at once the danger is we have to close everything at once.
“It certainly seems to be that the priority is to get schools open, we need to make sure that we can make schools open safely before we think of going back to the pub.”
