scholarly journals The role of conformity in mask-wearing during COVID-19

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. e0261321
Author(s):  
Anna Woodcock ◽  
P. Wesley Schultz
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Community Setting ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Health Guidance

By September 2020, COVID-19 had claimed the lives of almost 1 million people worldwide, including more than 400,000 in the U.S. and Europe [1] To slow the spread of the virus, health officials advised social distancing, regular handwashing, and wearing a face covering [2]. We hypothesized that public adherence to the health guidance would be influenced by prevailing social norms, and the prevalence of these behaviors among others. We focused on mask-wearing behavior during fall 2020, and coded livestream public webcam footage of 1,200 individuals across seven cities. Results showed that only 50% of participants were correctly wearing a mask in public, and that this percentage varied as a function of the mask-wearing behavior of close and distant others in the immediate physical vicinity. How social normative information might be used to increase mask-wearing behavior is discussed. “Cloth face coverings are one of the most powerful weapons we have to slow and stop the spread of the virus—particularly when used universally within a community setting” CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield in July 2020.

scholarly journals Let's (Not) Get Together!: The Role of Social Norms in Social Distancing during COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Déborah Martínez ◽  
Cristina Parilli ◽  
Carlos Scartascini ◽  
Alberto Simpser
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Preventive Measures ◽  
Fictional Character ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Predicted Probability ◽  
Communication Campaigns

While effective preventive measures against COVID-19 are now widely known, many individuals fail to adopt them. This paper provides experimental evidence about one potentially important driver of compliance with social distancing: social norms. We asked each of 23,000 survey respondents in Mexico to predict how a fictional person would behave when faced with the choice about whether or not to attend a friend's birthday gathering. Every respondent was randomly assigned to one of four social norms conditions. Expecting that other people would attend the gathering and/or believing that other people approved of attending the gathering both increased the predicted probability that the fictional character would attend the gathering by 25% in comparison with a scenario where other people were not expected to attend nor to approve of attending. Our results speak to the potential effects of communication campaigns and media coverage of, compliance with, and normative views about COVID-19 preventive measures. They also suggest that policies aimed at modifying social norms or making existing ones salient could impact compliance.

scholarly journals Let’s (not) get together! The role of social norms on social distancing during COVID-19

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0247454
Author(s):  
Déborah Martínez ◽  
Cristina Parilli ◽  
Carlos Scartascini ◽  
Alberto Simpser
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Preventive Measures ◽  
Fictional Character ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Predicted Probability ◽  
Communication Campaigns

While effective preventive measures against COVID-19 are now widely known, many individuals fail to adopt them. This article provides experimental evidence about one potentially important driver of compliance with social distancing: social norms. We asked each of 23,000 survey respondents in Mexico to predict how a fictional person would behave when faced with the choice about whether or not to attend a friend’s birthday gathering. Every respondent was randomly assigned to one of four social norms conditions. Expecting that other people would attend the gathering and/or believing that other people approved of attending the gathering both increased the predicted probability that the fictional character would attend the gathering by 25%, in comparison with a scenario where other people were not expected to attend nor to approve of attending. Our results speak to the potential effects of communication campaigns and media coverage of compliance with, and normative views about, COVID-19 preventive measures. They also suggest that policies aimed at modifying social norms or making existing ones salient could impact compliance.

Supernatural norm enforcement: Thinking about Karma and God reduces selfishness among believers

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cindel White ◽  
John Michael Kelly ◽  
Azim Shariff ◽  
Ara Norenzayan
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Framing Effects ◽  
Demographic Variables ◽  
Exclusion Criteria ◽  
Total N ◽  
Norm Enforcement ◽  
Dictator Games ◽  
Within Subjects

Four experiments (total N = 3591) examined how thinking about Karma and God increases adherence to social norms that prescribe fairness in anonymous dictator games. We found that (1) thinking about Karma decreased selfishness among karmic believers across religious affiliations, including Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, and non-religious Americans; (2) thinking about God also decreased selfishness among believers in God (but not among non-believers), replicating previous findings; and (3) thinking about both karma and God shifted participants’ initially selfish offers towards fairness (the normatively prosocial response), but had no effect on already fair offers. These supernatural framing effects were obtained and replicated in high-powered, pre-registered experiments and remained robust to several methodological checks, including hypothesis guessing, game familiarity, demographic variables, between- and within-subjects designs, and variation in data exclusion criteria. These results support the role of culturally-elaborated beliefs about supernatural justice as a motivator of believer’s adherence to prosocial norms.

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