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

Martínez, Déborah; Parilli, Cristina; Scartascini, Carlos; Simpser, Alberto

doi:10.18235/0003044

Cited by 8 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Bicchieri (2020), in turn, carries out a series of vignette questionnaire experiments and highlights the role of expectations on others' behavior for compliance with experts' recommendations. Martinez et al (2020) show evidence that social norms matter for compliance with COVID-19 preventive measures: in a survey experiment in Mexico, their results indicate that both coverage of compliance with preventive measures and normative views about them matter for compliance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Trusting Covid-19 recommendations: The role of experts, markets and governments

Albornoz,

Cruces,

Lombardi

2023

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Do individuals trust experts' advice? Does the sector represented by these experts matter for trust and compliance? Do individuals prefer the public or the private sector for large-scale responses to events such as the pandemic? We answer these questions by means of a large-scale survey on a representative sample of 9,444 respondents from Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay. We study if opinions on risk-mitigating actions against Covid-19 are shaped by expert recommendations and the sectors they represent. We identify a backlash against experts' recommendations that is robust across expert sectors and countries, and more pronounced for recommendations that require more effort to implement. We also find that, even for individuals with a low level of trust in the public sector, there is widespread agreement that governments should be preferred over the private sector to lead the production and distribution of vaccines. Most respondents, even those expressing distrust in governments, believe that governments should get involved in producing the vaccine for Covid-19, either exclusively or in a partnership with the private sector. This result is stronger for the distribution of the vaccine than for its production.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Trusting Covid-19 recommendations: The role of experts, markets and governments

Albornoz,

Cruces,

Lombardi

2023

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“…Intuitively, this gives an important role to (informal) social norms to complement or replace more general institutional measures [1,16], for they seem to be more adaptive. Yet despite a large literature showing the potential of social norms to motivate, for instance, sustainable food choices, energy conservation or social distancing [17,18], less is known about how social norms themselves are affected by the changing context, potentially compromising their effectiveness in solving dilemmas [19]. In these settings, it is plausible that social norms are less internalized and that compliance instead remains a more deliberate act that is conditional on one's expectations about the behaviour and beliefs of other people [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk, sanctions and norm change: the formation and decay of social distancing norms

Vriens,

Andrighetto,

Tummolini

2024

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Global challenges like the climate crisis and pandemic outbreaks require collective responses where people quickly adapt to changing circumstances. Social norms are potential solutions, but only if they themselves are flexible enough. The COVID-19 pandemic provided a unique opportunity to study norm formation and decay in real-world contexts. We tracked empirical and normative expectations about social distancing and empirical and normative expectations of sanctioning from June 2021 to February 2022 to explore how norms and meta norms evolved as COVID-19 risk decreased and increased. We found that norms and meta norms partially coevolve with risk dynamics, although they recover with some delay. This implies that norms should be enforced as soon as risk increases. We therefore tested how sanctioning intentions vary for different hypothetical norms and find them to increase with a clear meta norm of sanctioning, yet decrease with a clear social norm of distance. In conclusion, social norms evolve spontaneously with changing risk, but might not be adaptive enough when the lack of meta norms of sanctioning introduce tolerance for norm violations. Moreover, norm nudges can potentially have negative externalities if strengthening the social norm increases tolerance for norm violations. These results put some limits to social norms as solutions to guide behaviour under risk. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Social norm change: drivers and consequences’.

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American Singles’ Attitudes Toward Future Romantic/Sexual Partners’ COVID-19 Vaccination Status: Evidence for both Vigilance and Indifference in a National Sample

T. Campbell,

Bennett-Brown,

S. Marcotte

et al. 2023

Sexuality & Culture

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Around 142 million American adults are currently single; at least half of these singles want to pursue a romantic partner. Romantic dating can involve exposure to numerous people. Thus, dating can significantly impact pathogen exposure risk. In a demographically-representative cross-sectional survey conducted in 2021 ( N = 5,000), we examined U.S. American singles’ COVID-19 vaccination status, assessed their preferences around a potential partner’s COVID-19 vaccination status, and identified demographic subgroups of singles particularly opposed to or indifferent to a partner being vaccinated against COVID-19. Our results showed 65% of participants were fully vaccinated, 10% were partially vaccinated, and 26% were unvaccinated against COVID-19. With regards to partner preferences, half wanted a vaccinated partner; 18.9% wanted a vaccinated partner but would make exceptions; 6.1% wanted an unvaccinated partner; and 25% reported that they did not care about their dating partner’s vaccination status. Partner preferences were largely aligned with participants’ own vaccination status, such that vaccinated participants preferred vaccinated partners. However, those preferring unvaccinated partners—or those willing to make exceptions for a partner—were most likely to identify as men, younger in age, a political affiliation outside of the two-party political system, a gender or sexual minority, or as a racial minority (i.e., Black/African-American or South Asian). Additionally, participants who were employed (vs. unemployed) were more likely to make exceptions for or prefer an unvaccinated partner. These results suggest that singles prefer homophily in COVID-19 vaccine status, and that minoritized subgroups of singles are more likely to maintain a social network including unvaccinated close others. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12119-023-10097-9.

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

Cited by 8 publications

References 17 publications

Trusting Covid-19 recommendations: The role of experts, markets and governments

Trusting Covid-19 recommendations: The role of experts, markets and governments

Risk, sanctions and norm change: the formation and decay of social distancing norms

American Singles’ Attitudes Toward Future Romantic/Sexual Partners’ COVID-19 Vaccination Status: Evidence for both Vigilance and Indifference in a National Sample

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