Moral dilemmas and trust in leaders during a global health crisis

Everett, Jim A. C.; Colombatto, Clara; Awad, Edmond; Boggio, Paulo S.; Bos, Björn; Brady, William J.; Chawla, Megha; Chituc, Vladimir; Chung, Dongil; Drupp, Moritz A.; Goel, Srishti; Grosskopf, Brit; Hjorth, Frederik; Ji, Alissa; Kealoha, Caleb; Kim, Judy; Lin, Yangfei; Ma, Yina; Maréchal, Michel André; Mancinelli, Federico; Mathys, Christoph; Olsen, Asmus Leth; Pearce, Graeme; Prosser, Annayah Miranda Beatrice; Reggev, Niv; Sabin, Nicholas; Senn, Julien; Shin, Yeon Soon; Sinnott‐Armstrong, Walter; Sjåstad, Hallgeir; Strick, Madelijn; Sul, Sunhae; Tummers, Lars; Turner, Monique Mitchell; Yu, Hongbo; Zoh, Yoonseo; Crockett, Molly J.

doi:10.1038/s41562-021-01156-y

Cited by 37 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…Trust in public leaders and institutions are commonly highlighted as a critical precondition for citizen compliance with public health guidance [ 44 , 45 ], such as the recommendation to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Using two 5-point Likert scaled items capturing respondents self-reported trust in the US government and the US Coronavirus Taskforce to provide accurate and reliable information on COVID-19 (measured at T1, baseline), we generated an index (mean = 5.6, SD = 2.2, range 2–10) and interacted the index with the pooled treatment indicator (see S11 Table ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Video-based messages to reduce COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and nudge vaccination intentions

2022

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Vaccines are highly effective for curbing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). Yet, millions of Americans remain hesitant about getting vaccinated, jeopardizing our ability to end the COVID-19 pandemic by fueling the spread and development of new variants. We show that brief video-based messages of encouragement addressing specific COVID-19 vaccine concerns increase vaccination intentions, and that vaccination intentions, in turn, are predictive of future vaccine uptake. Results from our online experiment reveal that willingness to get vaccinated is driven by messages that increase confidence in COVID-19 vaccines and perceived behavioral control to get vaccinated. Importantly, messages were particularly effective among more skeptical populations including people who identify as politically conservative or moderate and those who express low trust in government institutions. Our findings corroborate the real-world behavioral significance of vaccination intentions, and devise how even short, scalable online messages can provide governments and health authorities an inexpensive, yet effective tool for increasing intentions to vaccinate against COVID-19 among populations most reluctant to get them.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Video-based messages to reduce COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and nudge vaccination intentions

2022

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“…Following prior work emphasizing the role of trust in national political leaders [ 18 ] or trust in government generally [ 14 , 75 , 76 ] in securing public health compliance, we examined the separate roles of each type of government trust: national public health institutions (shortened to “national institutions”), national political leaders, and local institutions (hospitals and officials).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Overall, there was a moderate general skew towards younger, more educated, less politically conservative, and less religious participants in most countries/territories ( Tables S26–S37 ). This skew was a possible limitation of our survey, though is expected in online-based survey research [ 18 ]. Note however that American or Western notions of religiosity and political ideology do not necessarily extend well to Asian cultures, so globally, these scales should be interpreted carefully.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A common, but potentially misleading [ 16 ], implicit assumption frequently seen in popular discourse and trust research across disciplines is that increasing trust in national political leaders is critical for a nation’s success broadly [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]. Overstating the influence of national political leaders on national outcomes generally, whether the outcome is good or bad, is an ever-present risk in analysis however, due to a core but dangerous cognitive bias in humans towards simple explanations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Trust in Institutions, Not in Political Leaders, Determines Compliance in COVID-19 Prevention Measures within Societies across the Globe

Badman

Wang

Skrodzki

et al. 2022

Behavioral Sciences

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A core assumption often heard in public health discourse is that increasing trust in national political leaders is essential for securing public health compliance during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic (2019–ongoing). However, studies of national government trust are typically too coarse-grained to differentiate between trust in institutions versus more interpersonal trust in political leaders. Here, we present multiscale trust measurements for twelve countries and territories across the West, Oceania and East Asia. These trust results were used to identify which specific domains of government and social trust were most crucial for securing public health compliance (frequency of mask wearing and social distancing) and understanding the reasons for following health measures (belief in effectiveness of public health measures). Through the use of linear regression and structural equation modeling, our cross-cultural survey-based analysis (N = 3369 subjects) revealed that higher trust in national and local public health institutions was a universally consistent predictor of public health compliance, while trust in national political leaders was not predictive of compliance across cultures and geographical regions. Institutional trust was mediated by multiple types of transparency, including providing rationale, securing public feedback, and honestly expressing uncertainty. These results highlight the importance of distinguishing between components of government trust, to better understand which entities the public gives the most attention to during crises.

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“…For example, in the face of proximity to death, individuals can activate some psychological defenses, such as minimizing the threat of the virus and its impact on their life [ 5 ]. In addition, individual behavior to deal with prevention depends on many factors, such as trust in the government and its strategies [ 6 ] and perception of the leaders' style to solve moral dilemmas [ 7 ]. These perceptions affected the efficacy of public policies to prevent infection during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Determinants in Self-Protective Behavior Related to COVID-19: Association Rule–Mining Study

Urbanin

Meira

Serpa

et al. 2022

JMIR Public Health Surveill

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Background Human behavior is crucial in health outcomes. Particularly, individual behavior is a determinant of the success of measures to overcome critical conditions, such as a pandemic. In addition to intrinsic public health challenges associated with COVID-19, in many countries, some individuals decided not to get vaccinated, streets were crowded, parties were happening, and businesses struggling to survive were partially open, despite lockdown or stay-at-home instructions. These behaviors contrast with the instructions for potential benefits associated with social distancing, use of masks, and vaccination to manage collective and individual risks. Objective Considering that human behavior is a result of individuals' social and economic conditions, we investigated the social and working characteristics associated with reports of appropriate protective behavior in Brazil. Methods We analyzed data from a large web survey of individuals reporting their behavior during the pandemic. We selected 3 common self-care measures: use of protective masks, distancing by at least 1 m when out of the house, and handwashing or use of alcohol, combined with assessment of the social context of respondents. We measured the frequency of the use of these self-protective measures. Using a frequent pattern–mining perspective, we generated association rules from a set of answers to questions that co-occur with at least a given frequency, identifying the pattern of characteristics of the groups divided according to protective behavior reports. Results The rationale was to identify a pool of working and social characteristics that might have better adhesion to behaviors and self-care measures, showing these are more socially determined than previously thought. We identified common patterns of socioeconomic and working determinants of compliance with protective self-care measures. Data mining showed that social determinants might be important to shape behavior in different stages of the pandemic. Conclusions Identification of context determinants might be helpful to identify unexpected facilitators and constraints to fully follow public policies. The context of diseases contributes to psychological and physical health outcomes, and context understanding might change the approach to a disease. Hidden social determinants might change protective behavior, and social determinants of protective behavior related to COVID-19 are related to work and economic conditions. Trial Registration Not applicable.

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Moral dilemmas and trust in leaders during a global health crisis

Cited by 37 publications

References 76 publications

Video-based messages to reduce COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and nudge vaccination intentions

Video-based messages to reduce COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and nudge vaccination intentions

Trust in Institutions, Not in Political Leaders, Determines Compliance in COVID-19 Prevention Measures within Societies across the Globe

Social Determinants in Self-Protective Behavior Related to COVID-19: Association Rule–Mining Study

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