Gossip about Coronavirus: Infection status and norm adherence shape social responses

Abstract

To stop the spread of the Coronavirus, people must avoid infection risk. Given widespread skepticism regarding information concerning the Coronavirus received from authorities, one potentially important pathway to estimate the infectiousness of one’s group members could be through gossip (i.e., information about an absent target). Infection risk is reflected by both infection status and adherence to social distancing norms. In hypothetical scenarios ( N = 837), participants received gossip that we manipulated to describe a group member’s infection status and/or norm adherence. Results showed people tended to believe gossip and that gossip influenced behavioral intentions to avoid and punish targets of gossip as well as the perception of targets. We conclude that gossip, while potentially unreliable, could affect how people treat group members. We discuss how gossip could alleviate the Coronavirus crisis by contributing to slowing the Coronavirus’s spread, as well as exacerbate it through increased social exclusion based on unverified information.

Direct punishment and indirect reputation-based tactics to intervene against offences

“…These findings are corroborated by studies on punishment in daily life settings, showing that anger predicts both direct and indirect punishment responses, whereas disgust is specifically associated with gossip and ostracism [51]. One potential explanation for why disgust motivates gossip against offenders is that sharing information about norm violations can effectively recruit subsequent ostracism from the receivers against the targets of gossip [82,87].…”

“…Consistent with these ideas, people who feel less powerful are more likely to respond to norm violations by gossiping or avoiding the offenders, rather than by directly confronting them [51]. Gossiping about transgressors also allows individuals who are less powerful to recruit punishment from third parties [40,82,87], potentially reducing individual costs of punishment and the risk of retaliation from powerful others.…”

“…any potential perpetrators) [72,86]. Gossip can help achieve general deterrence by allowing people to coordinate with third parties and recruit punishment from them [82,87], lowering the otherwise high costs of uncoordinated direct punishment (see also [88][89][90]). Finally, gossip may represent one way for individuals to take revenge by imposing strong symbolic costs on an offender, while reinstating their own image in the eyes of their community [54,74].…”

Using first-person narratives about healthcare workers and people who are incarcerated to motivate helping behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Here, we demonstrate positive effects of reading first-hand narratives (vs. matched expository messages) about people whose circumstances place them at high risk for exposure to SARS-CoV-2. Prior research has also highlighted that other forms of narratives such as gossip or rumor messages can negatively affect people's beliefs and behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic ( Dores Cruz et al, 2021 ; Sharma and Kapoor, 2021 ). Our research highlights one way that a form of story-telling, grounded in people's real experiences, can encourage prevention behaviors.…”

A group processes approach to antiscience beliefs and endorsement of “alternative facts”

“…But it is not only affiliation that plays a role when it comes to misperceptions and compliance with health advice, perceived normativity plays a role too. Dores Cruz et al (2021) investigate the role that socially shared information plays in shaping social responses to individuals that violate compliance norms. Specifically, the authors looked at how rumours about the infection status of a norm-violating (vs. normadhering vs. no information) group member influence social judgements.…”