Descriptive norms caused increases in mask wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Human sociality is governed by two types of social norms: injunctive social norms, which prescribe what people ought to do, and descriptive social norms, which reflect what people actually do. These norms enable people to cooperate in the face of group-wide challenges. While previous experimental work has shown that people’s behavior is influenced by social norms, several open questions remain about the natural emergence of injunctive and descriptive social norms within populations and their causal influences on cooperative behavior over time. To understand how cooperative behavior emerges and is shaped by changing social norms in a non-experimental setting, we studied mask wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mask wearing has individual benefits, but it is also a cooperative behavior that provides collective benefits of reduced disease transmission in the community. Leveraging two years of longitudinal data from a representative sample of adults in the United States (18 time points; n = 915), we tracked people’s reported mask wearing and their perceived injunctive and descriptive mask wearing norms as the pandemic unfolded. Longitudinal trends of norm perceptions and self-reported mask wearing suggested that norms and behavior were tightly coupled and both changed quickly in response to recommendations from public health authorities. In addition, a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model revealed that perceived descriptive norms, but not perceived injunctive norms, caused future within-person increases in individuals' mask wearing. These findings show that, during uncertain times, cooperative behavior is driven by what others are actually doing, rather than what others think ought to be done.

SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: From Crisis to Solution

“…Healthcare institutions are by the nature of their responsibility to protect health 190,41,191,192 as well as the high levels of physical contact and concentrations of both vulnerable and COVID infected individuals-locations in which enhanced protections should be normalized. This includes multiple levels of precautions: the universal use of N95 or better respirators 193,194,195,196 , high frequency testing, enhanced air hygiene, and optimized physical and social distancing. Some healthcare systems are already consistently implementing 197 or reintroducing such measures 198 .…”

Bi-directional associations between mask usage and the associated reasons before and after the downgrading of the legal status of COVID-19 in Japan: A longitudinal study

“…However, only a limited number of studies have examined the bi-directional associations between mask usage and beliefs regarding the associated reasons. A recent longitudinal study over a 2-year period beginning in the fall of 2020 in the Unites States showed significant bi-directional associations between mask usage and norms 15 . Therefore, examining the associations between the two entities before and after the downgrading of the legal status of COVID-19 in Japan from a bidirectional perspective would be crucial in developing strategies not only to promote infection prevention measures in another outbreak of COVID-19 or an emergent infectious disease outbreak, but also in mitigating mask usage.…”

Vaccine hesitancy and trust in sub-Saharan Africa

“…Hence, individual trust and beliefs about vaccination decisions of others can play a relevant role in overcoming vaccine hesitancy. By examining individual trust towards vaccination decisions of other society members, we add to the literature investigating the role of prosocial motivations in health preventive behavior [44][45][46] .…”