scholarly journals Global adoption of personal and social mitigation behaviors during COVID-19: The role of trust & confidence

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. e0256159
Author(s):  
Pauline Jones ◽  
Anil Menon ◽  
Allen Hicken ◽  
Laura S. Rozek

What influences the adoption of SARS-CoV-2 mitigation behaviors–both personal, such as mask wearing and frequent handwashing, and social, such as avoiding large gatherings and physical contact–across countries? Understanding why some individuals are more willing to change their behavior to mitigate the spread of a pandemic will not only help us to address the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic but also to respond to future ones. Researchers have pointed to a variety of factors that may influence individual adoption of personal and social mitigation behaviors, including social inequality, risk perception, personality traits, and government policies. While not denying the importance of these factors, we argue that the role of trust and confidence has received insufficient attention to date. Our study explores whether there is a difference in the way trust and confidence in particular leaders and organizations affect individual compliance and whether this effect is consistent across different types of mitigation behaviors. Specifically, we utilize an original cross-national survey conducted during the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (May-June 2020) to investigate how trust in scientists, medical professionals, politicians, and religious leaders and confidence in global, national, and local health organizations affects individual compliance in 16 countries/territories across five world regions. Our analyses, which control for the aforementioned factors as well as several others, suggest that trust in politicians and confidence in national health ministries have the most consistent influence on whether individuals adopt both personal and social mitigation behaviors. Across our sample, we find that greater trust in politicians is associated with lower levels of individual compliance with public health directives, whereas greater confidence in the national health ministry is associated with higher levels of individual compliance. Our findings suggest the need to understand trust and confidence as among the most important individual level characteristics driving compliance when developing and delivering messaging about the adoption of mitigation behaviors. The content of the message, it seems, will be most effective when citizens across countries trust its source. Trusted sources, such as politicians and the national health ministry, should thus consider working closely together when determining and communicating recommended health behaviors to avoid contradicting one another.

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Gineste ◽  
Burcu Savun

While scholars have for some time debated the role of refugee flows in the international spread of conflict, most evidence has been indirect due to the scarcity of systematic data on refugee-related violence. The Political and Societal Violence By And Against Refugees (POSVAR) dataset addresses this lacuna by providing cross-national, time-series data on refugees’ involvement in acts of physical violence in their host state, either as the victims or the perpetrators of violence, individually or collectively, in all countries between 1996 and 2015. In this article, we provide an overview of the main features of the dataset, identify its limitations, and trace variation in reported levels of refugee-related violence over time and across different types of actors. We emphasize that the data may be helpful to both researchers and policymakers for more accurate understanding of the prevalence of refugee-related violence and the design of more optimal policies to mitigate it.


Author(s):  
Elisabetta Cioni ◽  
Alessandro Lovari

The aim of this chapter is to highlight the current issues and the challenging process of the adoption of social media by Italian local health authorities (ASL). After a literature review of the role of social media for health organizations, the authors focus their attention on how social network sites are modifying health communication and relations with citizens in Italy. They conduct an exploratory study articulated in three stages: after mapping the presence of local health authorities on the most popular social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube), they carry out a content analysis to describe the prevalent kinds of messages published in the official Facebook timelines; in the third phase, using several interviews with healthcare directors and communications managers, the authors investigate implementation issues, managerial implications, and constraints that influence proper use of these participative platforms by Italian public health organizations. Limitations and further steps of the research are discussed.


2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412110610
Author(s):  
Beyza Tepe ◽  
Arzu Karakulak

Building on the Relational Motivation Theory, the present research argues that relational motivations (RM) underlie both the regulation and the moral judgment of socially (un)responsive Covid-19 behaviors (e.g., physical distancing) and links these two via moral identity. We hypothesize that different types of socially unresponsive behaviors are judged morally wrong through perceptions of RM violations and that a stronger concern for unity predicts the extent to which individuals self-report to perform socially responsive Covid-19 behaviors. Additionally, the role of moral identity as an individual-level moderator variable linking perceptions about RM violation to the practice of Covid-19 responsible behaviors is explored. The results support the predictions with data collected from participants living in Turkey and the USA. In both cultures, socially unresponsive Covid-19 behaviors of others were judged morally wrong through RMs, plus individuals’ general concern for unity predicted their self-reported socially responsive Covid-19 behaviors. Additionally, for the sample from Turkey, results revealed that the general concern for unity was positively associated with self-reported tendencies to perform Covid-19 socially responsive behaviors only among individuals with a low or moderate moral identity, but not when moral identity was high.


2002 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maureen Outlaw ◽  
Barry Ruback ◽  
Chester Britt

The present research uses hierarchical modeling to examine the relative contributions of factors about the person, factors about the context, and, most important the interaction of factors about the person and factors about the context in models of both repeat victimization (more than one of the same type of crime) and multiple victimization (two or more different types of crime). Using telephone survey data from a multistage sample of Seattle residents, we estimate separate hierarchical models for repeat property, repeat violent and multiple victimization. Results indicate that repeat victimization of both types varies substantially by neighborhood, whereas multiple victimization seems more determined by individual-level factors. Implications for social disorganization theory, routine activity/lifestyle exposure theory, and future work on repeat victimization are discussed.


Micromachines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 148
Author(s):  
Elisabetta Moisello ◽  
Piero Malcovati ◽  
Edoardo Bonizzoni

The worldwide spread of COVID-19 has forced us to adapt to a new way of life made of social distancing, avoidance of physical contact and temperature checks before entering public places, in order to successfully limit the virus circulation. The role of technology has been fundamental in order to support the required changes to our lives: thermal sensors, in particular, are especially suited to address the needs arisen during the pandemic. They are, in fact, very versatile devices which allow performing contactless human body temperature measurements, presence detection and people counting, and automation of appliances and systems, thus avoiding the need to touch them. This paper reviews the theory behind thermal detectors, considering the different types of sensors proposed during the last ten years, while focusing on their possible employment for COVID-19 related applications.


Author(s):  
Michael Becher ◽  
Daniel Stegmueller ◽  
Sylvain Brouard ◽  
Eric Kerrouche

Social distancing is a central public health measure in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, but individuals' compliance cannot be taken for granted. We use a survey experiment to examine the prevalence of non-compliance with social distancing in nine countries and test pre-registered hypotheses about individual-level characteristics associated with less social distancing. Leveraging a list experiment to control for social desirability bias, we find large cross-national variation in adherence to social distancing guidelines. Compliance varies systematically with COVID-19 fatalities and the strictness of lockdown measures. We also find substantial heterogeneity in the role of individual-level predictors. While there is an ideological gap in social distancing in the US and New Zealand, this is not the case in European countries. Taken together, our results suggest caution when trying to model pandemic health policies on other countries' experiences. Behavioral interventions targeted towards specific demographics that work in one context might fail in another.


2002 ◽  
Vol 27 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 89-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Kabanoff ◽  
Joseph Daly

We review a series of studies whose focus is the measurement and comparison of values espoused by organisations in their public documents, in particular their annual reports. We begin by considering the construct of organizational values and the advantages and assumptions involved in using content-analysis of organizational documents to measure espoused values. Three interrelated studies of espoused organisational values are then described. The first of these investigates the value profiles of a sample of large Australian companies in order to test the validity of a previously developed typology of organisational values derived from distributive and procedural justice theory (Kabanoff, 1991). Changes in organisational values over time for the same group of companies are then considered. This study illustrates that how one studies value change, either in a univariate way by comparing single values over time or by comparing the incidence of different organisational ‘types’, that is organisational with different types of value profiles, significantly influences the results and interpretations of changes over time. The final study is a cross-national comparison involving Australian and US organisations that reveals several meaningful differences between the countries in the incidence of organisations with different value profiles. We conclude with a brief discussion of future planned research using the same methodology and focusing on the role of espoused values in organisational mergers and acquisitions.


2016 ◽  
Vol 86 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 127-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeshan Ali ◽  
Zhenbin Wang ◽  
Rai Muhammad Amir ◽  
Shoaib Younas ◽  
Asif Wali ◽  
...  

While the use of vinegar to fi ght against infections and other crucial conditions dates back to Hippocrates, recent research has found that vinegar consumption has a positive effect on biomarkers for diabetes, cancer, and heart diseases. Different types of vinegar have been used in the world during different time periods. Vinegar is produced by a fermentation process. Foods with a high content of carbohydrates are a good source of vinegar. Review of the results of different studies performed on vinegar components reveals that the daily use of these components has a healthy impact on the physiological and chemical structure of the human body. During the era of Hippocrates, people used vinegar as a medicine to treat wounds, which means that vinegar is one of the ancient foods used as folk medicine. The purpose of the current review paper is to provide a detailed summary of the outcome of previous studies emphasizing the role of vinegar in treatment of different diseases both in acute and chronic conditions, its in vivo mechanism and the active role of different bacteria.


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