1. Changes in social norms during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic across 43 countries
- Author
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Andrighetto, Giulia, Szekely, Aron, Guido, Andrea, Gelfand, Michele, Abemathy, Jered, Arikan, Gizem, Aycan, Zeynep, Bankar, Shweta, Barrera, Davide, Basnight-Brown, Dana, Belaus, Anabel, Berezina, Elizaveta, Blumen, Sheyla, Boski, Pawel, Bui, Huyen Thi Thu, Camilo Cardenas, Juan, Cekrlija, Dorde, de Barra, Micheal, de Zoysa, Piyanjali, Dorrough, Angela, Engelmann, Jan B., Euh, Hyun, Fiedler, Susann, Foster-Gimbel, Olivia, Freitas, Goncalo, Fulop, Marta, Gardarsdottir, Ragna B., Gill, Colin Mathew Hugues D., Gloeckner, Andreas, Graf, Sylvie, Grigoryan, Ani, Growiec, Katarzyna, Hashimoto, Hirofumi, Hopthrow, Tim, Hrebickova, Martina, Imada, Hirotaka, Kamijo, Yoshio, Kapoor, Hansika, Kashima, Yoshihisa, Khachatryan, Narine, Kharchenko, Natalia, Leon, Diana, Leslie, Lisa M., Li, Yang, Liik, Kadi, Liuzza, Marco Tullio, Maitner, Angela T., Mamidi, Pavan, McArdle, Michele, Medhioub, Imed, Mendes Teixeira, Maria Luisa, Mentser, Sari, Morales, Francisco, Narayanan, Jayanth, Nitta, Kohei, Nussinson, Ravit, Onyedire, Nneoma G., Onyishi, Ike E., Osin, Evgeny, Ozden, Seniha, Panagiotopoulou, Penny, Pereverziev, Oleksandr, Perez-Floriano, Lorena R., Pirttila-Backman, Anna-Maija, Pogosyan, Marianna, Raver, Jana, Reyna, Cecilia, Rodrigues, Ricardo Borges, Romano, Sara, Romero, Pedro P., Sakki, Inari, Sanchez, Angel, Sherbaji, Sara, Simpson, Brent, Spadoni, Lorenzo, Stamkou, Eftychia, Travaglino, Giovanni A., Van Lange, Paul A. M., Winata, Fiona Fira, Zein, Rizqy Amelia, Zhang, Qing-peng, Eriksson, Kimmo, Andrighetto, Giulia, Szekely, Aron, Guido, Andrea, Gelfand, Michele, Abemathy, Jered, Arikan, Gizem, Aycan, Zeynep, Bankar, Shweta, Barrera, Davide, Basnight-Brown, Dana, Belaus, Anabel, Berezina, Elizaveta, Blumen, Sheyla, Boski, Pawel, Bui, Huyen Thi Thu, Camilo Cardenas, Juan, Cekrlija, Dorde, de Barra, Micheal, de Zoysa, Piyanjali, Dorrough, Angela, Engelmann, Jan B., Euh, Hyun, Fiedler, Susann, Foster-Gimbel, Olivia, Freitas, Goncalo, Fulop, Marta, Gardarsdottir, Ragna B., Gill, Colin Mathew Hugues D., Gloeckner, Andreas, Graf, Sylvie, Grigoryan, Ani, Growiec, Katarzyna, Hashimoto, Hirofumi, Hopthrow, Tim, Hrebickova, Martina, Imada, Hirotaka, Kamijo, Yoshio, Kapoor, Hansika, Kashima, Yoshihisa, Khachatryan, Narine, Kharchenko, Natalia, Leon, Diana, Leslie, Lisa M., Li, Yang, Liik, Kadi, Liuzza, Marco Tullio, Maitner, Angela T., Mamidi, Pavan, McArdle, Michele, Medhioub, Imed, Mendes Teixeira, Maria Luisa, Mentser, Sari, Morales, Francisco, Narayanan, Jayanth, Nitta, Kohei, Nussinson, Ravit, Onyedire, Nneoma G., Onyishi, Ike E., Osin, Evgeny, Ozden, Seniha, Panagiotopoulou, Penny, Pereverziev, Oleksandr, Perez-Floriano, Lorena R., Pirttila-Backman, Anna-Maija, Pogosyan, Marianna, Raver, Jana, Reyna, Cecilia, Rodrigues, Ricardo Borges, Romano, Sara, Romero, Pedro P., Sakki, Inari, Sanchez, Angel, Sherbaji, Sara, Simpson, Brent, Spadoni, Lorenzo, Stamkou, Eftychia, Travaglino, Giovanni A., Van Lange, Paul A. M., Winata, Fiona Fira, Zein, Rizqy Amelia, Zhang, Qing-peng, and Eriksson, Kimmo
- Abstract
The emergence of COVID-19 dramatically changed social behavior across societies and contexts. Here we study whether social norms also changed. Specifically, we study this question for cultural tightness (the degree to which societies generally have strong norms), specific social norms (e.g. stealing, hand washing), and norms about enforcement, using survey data from 30,431 respondents in 43 countries recorded before and in the early stages following the emergence of COVID-19. Using variation in disease intensity, we shed light on the mechanisms predicting changes in social norm measures. We find evidence that, after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, hand washing norms increased while tightness and punishing frequency slightly decreased but observe no evidence for a robust change in most other norms. Thus, at least in the short term, our findings suggest that cultures are largely stable to pandemic threats except in those norms, hand washing in this case, that are perceived to be directly relevant to dealing with the collective threat. Tightness-looseness theory predicts that social norms strengthen following threat. Here the authors test this and find that, after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, hand washing norms increased, but no evidence was observed for a robust change in most other norms., Funding Agencies|Knut and Wallenberg Grant "How do human norms form and change?" [870827]; Swedish Research Council grant "Norms & Risk: Do social norms help dealing with collective threats" [2021-06271]; Ministero dell'Istruzione dell'Universita e della Ricerca, PRIN 2017 [20178TRM3F]; Universidad de Los Andes; Fondo Vicerrectoria de Investigaciones; Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary; National Research, Development and Innovation Fund [NKFIH-OTKA K135963]; Czech Science Foundation [23-061770 S]; Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences [RVO: 68081740]; Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, VI.Veni; RA Science Committee; European Commission, Horizon 2020 [PID2022-141802NB-I00]; Open University of Israel; UKRI Grant "Secret Power"; HSE University Basic Research Program; European Commission's "European Research Council - STG" Scheme [W911NF-19-1-910281]; MCIN/AEI; ERDF A way of making Europe; US Army Research Office [2016.0167]; Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research; [511687]; [EP/X02170X/1]; [20TTSH-070]; [019.183SG.001]; [201 G.013]
- Published
- 2024
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