Career decisions in artistic professions during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany—an experimental study

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the professional situation in artistic professions. Repeated lockdowns resulted in the cancellation of cultural events and exacerbated economic challenges, depriving artists and people working in the culture industry of their primary source of income. Such drastic conditions could lead to important professional decisions, including career changes. This study aimed to determine the factors that could influence career decisions among artistic professionals during a second pandemic lockdown period in Germany. To examine whether health concerns or financial struggles are more important in shaping artistic professionals’ decisions to change or stay in their profession, a vignette experiment was conducted in an online survey (n = 788) in the winter of 2020–2021. In the experiment’s 2*3-factorial randomised design, all respondents were asked to put themselves in the role of artists and make decisions about career changes under different income conditions or with different health prospects. The vignette experiment revealed that income losses related to career changes decreased the willingness to change careers, whereas health prospects (hypothetical differences in vaccine efficacy) did not affect the decisions. In addition, other variables were found to explain career decisions; female gender and signs of a depressive disorder were associated with greater willingness for career turnover, whereas a higher educational level and status of earning one’s livelihood in the culture industry were associated with a diminished tendency for career turnover. The latter impact factor was interpreted as a kind of “don’t give up effect” that is particularly observable among artistic professionals.