Prevention for oneself or others? Psychological and social factors that explain social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Christner, Natalie; Sticker, Regina M.; Söldner, Lena; Mammen, Maria; Paulus, Markus

doi:10.1177/1359105320980793

Cited by 48 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Caring for both self- and collective interest is supposed to be a fundamental human motive (e.g., Fehr and Fischbacher, 2003 ). This notion is supported by some empirical literature in which empathy is related to COVID-19 prevention behaviors ( Christner et al, in press ; Lunn et al, 2020 ; Pfattheicher et al, 2020 ). Thus, exposure to social relation cues may have activated empathy toward others, leading individuals to engage in collective-interested behavior (i.e., prevention behavior) during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 62%

“…Therefore, prevention behavior can be regarded as prosocial behavior. Given that empathy is associated with prosocial behavior and cooperation (e.g., Eisenberg and Miller, 1987 ), it may indeed lead to prevention behaviors as already suggested by some researchers ( Christner et al, in press ; Lunn et al, 2020 ; Pfattheicher et al, 2020 ). Sakakibara and Ozono (2020) provided suggestive findings with respect to the psychological factors that promote prevention behaviors via a survey conducted from the end of April to the beginning of May with a Japanese sample 8 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

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Self-Interested Framed and Prosocially Framed Messaging Can Equally Promote COVID-19 Prevention Intention: A Replication and Extension of Jordan et al.’s Study (2020) in the Japanese Context

Miyajima

Murakami

2021

Front. Psychol.

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How can we effectively promote the public’s prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection? Jordan et al. (2020) found with United States samples that emphasizing either self-interest or collective-interest of prevention behaviors could promote the public’s prevention intention. Moreover, prosocially framed messaging was more effective in motivating prevention intention than self-interested messaging. A dual consideration of both cultural psychology and the literature on personalized matching suggests the findings of Jordan et al. (2020) are counterintuitive, because persuasion is most effective when the frame of the message delivered and the recipient of the message are culturally congruent. In order to better understand the potential influence of culture, the current research aimed to replicate and extend Jordan et al. (2020) findings in the Japanese context. Specifically, we examined the question (1) whether the relative effectiveness of the prosocial appeal is culturally universal and robust, (2) which types of ‘others’ especially promote prevention intention, and (3) which psychological mechanisms can explain the impact of messaging on prevention intention. In Study 1 (N = 1,583), we confirmed that self-interested framed, prosocially framed, and the combination of both types of messaging were equally effective in motivating prevention intention. In Study 2 (N = 1,686), we found that family-framed messaging also had a promoting effect similar to that from self-interested and prosocial appeals. However, the relative advantage of prosocial appeals was not observed. Further, a psychological propensity relevant to sensitivity to social rejection did not moderate the impact of messaging on prevention intention in both studies. These results suggest that since engaging in the infection control itself was regarded as critical by citizens after public awareness of COVID-19 prevention has been sufficiently heightened, for whom we should act might not have mattered. Further, concerns for social rejection might have had less impact on the prevention intentions under these circumstances. These results suggest that the relative advantage of a prosocial appeal might not be either culturally universal or prominent in a collectivistic culture. Instead, they suggest that the advantages of such an appeal depends on the more dynamic influence of COVID-19 infection.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 62%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Self-Interested Framed and Prosocially Framed Messaging Can Equally Promote COVID-19 Prevention Intention: A Replication and Extension of Jordan et al.’s Study (2020) in the Japanese Context

Miyajima

Murakami

2021

Front. Psychol.

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“…Some works tested messages highlighting consequences on close others, or kinship. Christner et al (2020) found that moral judgments and empathy for loved ones are associated with intentions to practise social distancing, beyond self-oriented factors.…”

Section: Social Distancingmentioning

confidence: 96%

Cooperation and acting for the greater good during the COVID-19 pandemic

Capraro¹,

Boggio²,

Bohm³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Cooperation is essential to overcome global pandemics and other health crises, as many preventative measures require people to bear a personal cost to benefit other people or society as a whole. Wearing a face mask, for example, protects other people more than it protects oneself. In this essay, we discuss several mechanisms that are known to promote cooperation in economic games and real-world scenarios, with a special focus on message-based interventions that might be helpful to promote social distancing, mask wearing, physical hygiene, vaccine uptake, and information seeking. Lessons learned and future research ideas are offered.

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“…Practically, the current research suggests a cultural dynamic perspective to interpret crosscultural differences on compliance with COVID-19-related mitigation measures. Jordan and colleagues (2020) found evidence supporting that emphasizing prosocial (interdependent) than proself (independent) benefits is more effective in stimulating COVID-19 prevention intentions within Western countries (see also Christner et al, 2020). And Lu and colleagues (2021) found that cultural collectivism (vs. individualism), both within the United States and across the world, predicts mask usage after controlling for other political and socio-economic predictors.…”

Section: Theoretical and Practical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Interest Bias in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Cultural Comparison between the United States and China

Dong

Spadaro

Yuan

et al. 2021

Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology

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In the global crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries attempt to enforce new social norms to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus. A key to the success of these measures is the individual adherence to norms that are collectively beneficial to contain the spread of the pandemic. However, individuals’ self-interest bias (i.e., the prevalent tendency to license own but not others’ self-serving acts or norm violations) can pose a challenge to the success of such measures. The current research examines COVID-19-related self-interest bias from a cross-cultural perspective. Two studies ( N = 1,558) sampled from the United States and China consistently revealed that participants from the United States evaluated their own self-serving acts (exploiting test kits in Study 1; social gathering and sneezing without covering the mouth in public in Study 2) as more acceptable than identical deeds of others, while such self-interest bias did not emerge among Chinese participants. Cultural underpinnings of independent versus interdependent self-construal may influence the extent to which individuals apply self-interest bias to justifications of their own self-serving behaviors during the pandemic.

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Prevention for oneself or others? Psychological and social factors that explain social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Cited by 48 publications

References 56 publications

Self-Interested Framed and Prosocially Framed Messaging Can Equally Promote COVID-19 Prevention Intention: A Replication and Extension of Jordan et al.’s Study (2020) in the Japanese Context

Self-Interested Framed and Prosocially Framed Messaging Can Equally Promote COVID-19 Prevention Intention: A Replication and Extension of Jordan et al.’s Study (2020) in the Japanese Context

Cooperation and acting for the greater good during the COVID-19 pandemic

Self-Interest Bias in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Cultural Comparison between the United States and China

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