Connecting Self-Reported Social Distancing to Real-World Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Gollwitzer, Anton; McLoughlin, Killian L.; Martel, Cameron; Marshall, Julia; Höhs, Johanna M.; Bargh, John A.

doi:10.31234/osf.io/kvnwp

Cited by 73 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Inferences should be made with care and consideration of our sampling method. Relatedly, and though recent COVID-19 research shows that self-reported measures of social distancing track actual behavior both at the individual and at the U.S. state level (Gollwitzer et al 2020), our results may be susceptible to common method bias (Favero and Bullock 2015). More details on our methodology-including similar results obtained from analyses without survey weights-are contained in the appendix, which also reports summary statistics (Table A1).…”

Section: Who Indicates the Most Willingness To Social Distance?mentioning

confidence: 87%

Social Distancing during the COVID‐19 Pandemic: Who Are the Present and Future Noncompliers?

Pedersen

Favero

2020

Public Administration Review

210

179

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Social distancing is an effective means of containing the spread of COVID‐19, but only if we all participate. Who are the individuals who are least likely to adhere to social distancing recommendations, presently and in the long term? Such knowledge is important for policy makers looking to sustain the public's buy‐in to social distancing. Using survey data from a sample of U.S. residents (n = 1,449), the authors show that some demographic factors (gender, age, race, political party) help predict intent to adhere to social distancing. Yet demographic factors are relatively poor predictors compared with individual attitudes and media diets. Public officials should make efforts to inform and persuade the public of the importance of social distancing, targeting media such as television and radio, where audiences are less likely to currently engage in social distancing or are less likely to envision themselves sustaining strict social distancing for several weeks or months.

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Section: Who Indicates the Most Willingness To Social Distance?mentioning

confidence: 87%

Social Distancing during the COVID‐19 Pandemic: Who Are the Present and Future Noncompliers?

Pedersen

Favero

2020

Public Administration Review

210

179

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“…Similarly, we focused on self-report of behavior, not actual behavior and there might be a gap between reported and actual health-protective behavior. However, recent research focusing on GPS movement data in the US during the COVID-19 outbreak suggests that self-report data might be used as a proxy for actual behavior ( Gollwitzer et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Correlates of Health-Protective Behavior During the Initial Days of the COVID-19 Outbreak in Norway

et al. 2020

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The coronavirus outbreak manifested in Norway in March 2020. It was met with a combination of mandatory changes (closing of public institutions) and recommended changes (hygiene behavior, physical distancing). It has been emphasized that health-protective behavior such as increased hygiene or physical distancing are able to slow the spread of infections and flatten the curve . Drawing on previous health-psychological studies during the outbreak of various pandemics, we investigated psychological and demographic factors predicting the adoption and engagement in health-protective behavior and changes in such behavior, attitudes, and emotions over time. We recruited a non-representative sample of Norwegians ( n = 8676) during a 15-day period (March 12–26 2020) at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in Norway. Employing both traditional methods and exploratory machine learning, we replicated earlier findings that engagement in health-protective behavior is associated with specific demographic characteristics. Further, we observed that increased media exposure, perceiving measures as effective, and perceiving the outbreak as serious was positively related to engagement in health-protective behavior. We also found indications that hygiene and physical distancing behaviors were related to somewhat different psychological and demographic factors. Over the sampling period, reported engagement in physical distancing increased, while experienced concern or fear declined. Contrary to previous studies, we found no or only small positive predictions by confidence in authorities, knowledge about the outbreak, and perceived individual risk, while all of those variables were rather high. These findings provide guidance for health communications or interventions targeting the adoption of health-protective behaviors in order to diminish the spread of COVID-19.

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“…However, gatherings of people have still been observed in different countries even though full home confinement has been ordered (Valiante, 2020). In some countries, people have even gathered to protest the COVID-19 pandemic containment measures (Deutsche Welle, 2020), although social distancing has been regarded as the currently most effective way to slow the spread of COVID-19 (Gollwitzer et al, 2020). So, the question arises why do some people not stay at home even though these measures are imposed to slow the spreading of the COVID-19 pandemic?…”

Section: Human Behavior During a Pandemicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Too bored to bother? Boredom as a potential threat to the efficacy of pandemic containment measures

Martarelli

Wolff

2020

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by coronavirus (SARS-nCoV2) is currently spreading across the world. In response, different sets of pandemic containment measures have been employed by several countries. The effectiveness of non-pharmacological measures such as home confinement hinges on adherence by the population. While adherence to these social distancing measures appears to be high in general, adherence might be more challenging for some individuals and complying with these measures might become more difficult the longer they last. Here, we suggest that boredom and self-control are two important psychological concepts for understanding the challenges the COVID-19 pandemic containment measures pose to individuals. To maximize adherence to these measures, we propose to consider the specific and combined effects of boredom and self-control demands elicited by this situation on subsequent behavior.

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Connecting Self-Reported Social Distancing to Real-World Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Cited by 73 publications

References 31 publications

Social Distancing during the COVID‐19 Pandemic: Who Are the Present and Future Noncompliers?

Social Distancing during the COVID‐19 Pandemic: Who Are the Present and Future Noncompliers?

Correlates of Health-Protective Behavior During the Initial Days of the COVID-19 Outbreak in Norway

Too bored to bother? Boredom as a potential threat to the efficacy of pandemic containment measures

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