RAPID: Mobilizing Close Relationships to Combat the COVID-19 Pandemic

为了阻止新冠肺炎的传播，人们需要实践公共卫生和政府官员建议的防护行为。为了遵循这些建议，人们反过来需要相信政府和公共卫生官员提供了良好的建议。他们还需要相信自己的同胞也会采取保护行为。遗憾的是，新冠肺炎的传播让人很难相信别人，因为别人才是病源。这个项目旨在了解人们如何利用他们最亲密的个人关系作为一种资源，帮助他们更多地信任其他人以及政府和公共卫生官员。了解亲密关系如何被用作应对新冠肺炎的资源，有助于找到增强对他人信任的简单方法，并最终激励人们采取推荐的自我保护行为。该项目的核心理念是，激励人们更信任他们最亲密的人际伴侣，也能让他们更信任自己的同胞、政府和公共卫生官员。信任亲密的伴侣应该会有这样的效果，因为这种信任应该会让依赖他人看起来更安全、风险更小。过去在这一领域的研究主要集中在伴侣和家庭成员之间的相互影响。这个项目试图通过考虑人们的生活与集体关系世界中那些人的行动交织在一起的方式，关系可能成功或失败的结果来扩展这一知识。因此，该项目提供了一个机会，通过将关系作为国家和全球社区内相互关联的关系系统的一部分进行研究，从根本上改变对密切关系动态的基本理解。一项为期3周的干预研究考察了增强信任的干预的效果。每天收集日常经验，关注参与者对新冠肺炎的担忧、对他人的信任以及自我保护行为。这个项目提供了一个正式的测试，测试信任伴侣如何让世界本身看起来更值得信任，并激励人们参与到阻止疾病传播所需的各种行为中。了解密切的个人关系在塑造人们对周围世界的反应中所起的作用，有助于促进人们应对全球挑战所需的信任和合作。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

To stop the spread of COVID-19, people need to practice the protective behaviors that public health and government officials recommend. To follow such recommendations, people in turn need to trust that government and public health officials are providing good advice. They also need to trust that their fellow citizens will practice the protective behaviors too. Unfortunately, the spread of COVID-19 makes it difficult to trust others because other people are the source of illness. This project aims to understand how people can use their closest personal relationships as a resource in helping them to trust more in other people and in government and public health officials. Understanding how close relationships can be used as a resource in coping with COVID-19 can help identify simple techniques to bolster trust in others and ultimately motivate people to engage in recommended self-protective behaviors.This project centers on the idea that motivating people to trust more in their closest interpersonal partners can also make them more trusting of their fellow citizens and government and public health officials. Trusting in a close partner should have this effect because such trust should make it seem safer and less risky to depend on other people as well. Past research in this area has focused on how partners and family members influence one another. This project seeks to expand this knowledge by considering that relationships might succeed or fail as a consequence of the ways in which people’s lives are intertwined with the actions of those in the collective relational world. The project therefore offers an opportunity to fundamentally transform basic understanding of close relationship dynamics by studying relationships as part of an interconnected system of relationships within the national and global community. A 3-week intervention study examines the effects of a trust-bolstering intervention. Daily experiences are collected each day, focusing on participant’s concerns about COVID-19, trust in others, and self-protective behavior. This project offers a formal test of how trusting a partner can make the world itself seem more trustworthy and motivate people to engage in the kinds of behaviors needed to stop the spread of illness. Understanding the role that close personal relationships play in shaping people’s responses to the world around them can help promote the kind of trust and cooperation needed for people to rise to global challenges.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.