Let’s (not) get together! The role of social norms on social distancing during COVID-19

Abstract

While effective preventive measures against COVID-19 are now widely known, many individuals fail to adopt them. This article provides experimental evidence about one potentially important driver of compliance with social distancing: social norms. We asked each of 23,000 survey respondents in Mexico to predict how a fictional person would behave when faced with the choice about whether or not to attend a friend’s birthday gathering. Every respondent was randomly assigned to one of four social norms conditions. Expecting that other people would attend the gathering and/or believing that other people approved of attending the gathering both increased the predicted probability that the fictional character would attend the gathering by 25%, in comparison with a scenario where other people were not expected to attend nor to approve of attending. Our results speak to the potential effects of communication campaigns and media coverage of compliance with, and normative views about, COVID-19 preventive measures. They also suggest that policies aimed at modifying social norms or making existing ones salient could impact compliance.

Peers for the fearless: Social norms facilitate preventive behaviour when individuals perceive low COVID-19 health risks

“…The literature distinguishes two main types of social norms: while “descriptive” norms refer to the observed behaviour of others, “injunctive” norms capture the expected moral approval of other people [ 29 ]. Jointly, both forms of social norms foster adherence to preventive behaviour in the context of COVID-19 [ 30 , 31 ], as people may engage in preventive behaviour not because of their belief in the benefit of the behaviour itself, but because they care about their social relations and their reputation in the social environment [ 32 – 36 ]. In line with these expectations, empirical evidence regarding COVID-19 suggests that people who engage in preventive behaviour are perceived as more prosocial [ 37 ] and express less positive attitudes towards those not wearing masks [ 9 ].…”

“…Previous empirical studies with respect to COVID-19 have reported puzzling results regarding the effects of social norms and political trust on preventive behaviour. While some studies, using data from the first surge of infections in early 2020, suggest that perceived health risks are the single most important factor in facilitating preventive behaviour [ 20 , 21 ], other studies have highlighted the importance of other factors like political trust and social norms [ 9 , 30 – 32 ]. We argue that accounting for the intervening factor of perceived health risks might explain these disparate findings, meaning that elevated perceptions of individual health risks (as reported in many countries at the beginning of the pandemic) should reduce the effects of trust and social norms on preventive behaviour because these social mechanisms are more relevant when health risk perceptions are low and thus do not induce people to take preventive measures out of self-interest.…”

Do you have COVID-19? How to increase the use of diagnostic and contact tracing apps

“…The survey was approved by the IRB of the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) on July 1, 2020, under the name "Social and Behavioral Drivers of Individual Compliance with Preventive Measures during the COVID-19 Epidemic in Mexico" (memorandum letter of approval available upon request from the authors.) In the same survey, we also included the survey experiment described and analyzed in Martínez et al, (2021) [43]. Therefore, recruitment methods and sample description are the same for both articles.…”

Do You Have COVID-19?: How to Increase the Use of Diagnostic and Contact-Tracing Apps

“…We conducted a survey experiment embedded within a larger survey focusing on COVID-19 experiences, attitudes, and behaviors. In the same survey, we also included the survey experiment described and analyzed in Martínez et al (2021). Therefore, recruitment methods and sample description are the same for both articles.…”