The Mediational Role of Desire for Cultural Tightness on Concern With COVID-19 and Perceived Self-Control

Abstract

When ecological threats are more severe or prevalent, societies are more likely to tighten their social norms and punishments. Moreover, when people follow clear and tight rules, they are more prone to regulate their behavior (i.e., self-control) in order to avoid punishment. Therefore, we examined the mediating role of people’s endorsement of cultural tightness (i.e., support and desire) on the relationship between concern with COVID-19 threat and personal self-control. Our hypothesis was tested through a mediation model in two studies with a sample of (N=315, 77.1% females, Mage=23.71) university students (Study 1) and with a heterogeneous sample of (N=239, 65.7% females, Mage=36.55) participants (Study 2). Empirical support for the proposed model was found in both studies. Implications of this research will be discussed. The main implication is related to the possibility that people’s desire for strong norms to cope with the COVID-19 threat could promote greater self-regulated preventive behavior in order to protect their health.

Perceived COVID-19 Threat and Reactions to Noncompliant Health-Protective Behaviors: The Mediating Role of Desired Cultural Tightness and the Moderating Role of Age

“…In the present study, we focus on whether people’s desired tightness may mediate the relationship between the perceived COVID-19 threat and emotional reactions to noncompliance with COVID-19 health-protective behaviors; we expect that the perceived COVID-19 threat may increase people’s desire for restrictions and sanctions where they reside, consistent with previous findings [ 7 , 11 , 12 ]; given that age-related differences were found in the perceived cost of COVID-19 infection and actual health risk [ 23 , 31 ], we also expect that participants’ age will moderate this relationship. Although research on COVID-19 has been very common since the start of the pandemic, to our knowledge this is the first attempt to study how socio-psychological variables can predict reactions to pandemic-specific non-compliance.…”

“…As mentioned, when societies face societal threats, tight rules and punishments for people who deviate from norms may help them to coordinate in order to survive [ 8 , 10 ]. Likewise, correlational and experimental findings [ 7 , 11 , 12 ] showed that threat also affects the desire that rules be stricter in the face of threat. This finding has been consistently shown by as a number of studies.…”

“…Jackson and colleagues [ 7 ] found that a perceived induced threat was associated with an increase in personal support, or desire, for tightness in both U.S. states and countries across the globe. Mula and colleagues [ 11 , 12 ] found that the specific perceived COVID-19 threat was associated with an increased desired tightness in Italy. Nisa and colleagues [ 28 ] found, in a worldwide sample, that the more people perceived a personal health risk, the more they supported strict health measures (i.e., support for mandatory coronavirus vaccination and mandatory quarantine).…”

“…Following Jackson and colleagues [ 7 ], the degree to which individuals want their country to enforce tightness can vary from person to person regardless of their country-level tightness. The desire for tightness [ 11 , 12 ] is rather an individual’s preference that a given context is culturally tighter, as individuals can endorse a culture other than the one in which they live [ 7 ]. In this vein, research [ 7 , 11 , 12 ] has shown that, as the salience of the threat increases, people’s desire for tightness increases.…”

“…The desire for tightness [ 11 , 12 ] is rather an individual’s preference that a given context is culturally tighter, as individuals can endorse a culture other than the one in which they live [ 7 ]. In this vein, research [ 7 , 11 , 12 ] has shown that, as the salience of the threat increases, people’s desire for tightness increases. According to Pepitone [ 13 ], the violation of socially accepted norms generally causes a negative emotional reaction (i.e., anger), not only in those somehow affected by the violation, but also in the “observers” of such violations.…”