Why Do People (Not) Engage in Social Distancing? Proximate and Ultimate Analyses of Norm-Following During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11310%2F21%3A10436414" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11310/21:10436414 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=jcGsiH_Qcw" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=jcGsiH_Qcw</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.648206" target="_blank" >10.3389/fpsyg.2021.648206</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Why Do People (Not) Engage in Social Distancing? Proximate and Ultimate Analyses of Norm-Following During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Original language description
COVID-19 has had a profound negative effect on many aspects of human life. While pharmacological solutions are being developed and implemented, the onus of mitigating the impact of the virus falls, in part, on individual citizens and their adherence to public health guidelines. However, promoting adherence to these guidelines has proven challenging. There is a pressing need to understand the factors that influence people's adherence to these guidelines in order to improve public compliance. To this end, the current study investigated whether people's perceptions of others' adherence predict their own adherence. We also investigated whether any influence of perceived social norms was mediated by perceptions of the moral wrongness of non-adherence, anticipated shame for non-adherence, or perceptions of disease severity. One hundred fifty-two Australians participated in our study between June 6, 2020 and August 21, 2020. Findings from this preliminary investigation suggest that (1) people match their behavior to perceived social norms, and (2) this is driven, at least in part, by people using others' behavior as a cue to the severity of disease threat. Such findings provide insight into the proximate and ultimate bases of norm-following behavior, and shed preliminary light on public health-related behavior in the context of a pandemic. Although further research is needed, the results of this study-which suggest that people use others' behavior as a cue to how serious the pandemic is and as a guide for their own behavior-could have important implications for public health organizations, social movements, and political leaders and the role they play in the fight against epidemics and pandemics.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
10602 - Biology (theoretical, mathematical, thermal, cryobiology, biological rhythm), Evolutionary biology
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach
Others
Publication year
2021
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Frontiers in Psychology [online]
ISSN
1664-1078
e-ISSN
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Volume of the periodical
12
Issue of the periodical within the volume
June
Country of publishing house
CH - SWITZERLAND
Number of pages
12
Pages from-to
648206
UT code for WoS article
000673356900001
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85110485195