RAPID: The impact of norms and emotions on social distancing during COVID-19

RAPID：COVID-19 期间规范和情绪对社交距离的影响

• 批准号: 2029633
• 负责人: MONIQUE TURNER
• 金额: $ 20万
• 依托单位: Michigan State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-07-01 至 2021-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2029633&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; impact; norms; emotions; social

Prior to the 2020 COVID-19 crisis, the U.S. had never attempted to influence high-commitment behaviors at such a large-scale for an extended period. Humans are "social animals"; promoting behaviors that protect the health of the community, like physical distancing, is against our social nature and difficult to maintain without people who truly believe in the importance of protecting others. The nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and peoples’ response to it are changing quickly as the social media and policy environment changes. Daily (even hourly) attention to the news and social media posts is more commonplace during crises, and this volume of exposure to information affects how we see and feel about the world; ultimately it drives what we do. Yet, it is rare to be able to document these rapid changes in real time. This study uses the team’s advances in communication modeling and analysis of social media to examine the dynamic relationships between social norms, emotions (including anger and guilt), and COVID-19 risk reduction behaviors using social media data and self-report surveys over the course of 2 months. This research can serve as the basis for communication efforts to promote behaviors to slow the spread of the disease and it can explain how social norms change over time. The Michigan State University Health and Risk Communication Center supports the movement of the research findings into practice.Descriptive social norms (what is common) and injunctive norms (approved by others) are likely to evolve more quickly during a crisis relative to other times; yet studying norm evolution in real time is challenging. The evolution of norms is, in part, shaped by communication, both mediated and interpersonal. The advent of physical distancing in the COVID-19 pandemic means a greater reliance on media for information and fewer interpersonal contacts. Understanding the genesis of norms, and their evolution in real time during a global pandemic is critical because norms predict risk behaviors. Moreover, individuals’ perceptions of their compliance with descriptive and injunctive norms co-vary with discrete emotions and risk behaviors like physical distancing. This research proposes and tests predictions about relationships among social norms, discrete emotions (including anger and guilt), and risk reduction through physical distancing. The methods combine a rolling cross-sectional survey and social media scraping techniques. The study leverages a recently completed national Qualtrics survey as a baseline. The project findings are translated for use in communication interventions to promote risk reduction and reduce COVID-19 transmission and future infectious disease outbreaks.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.

在2020年新冠肺炎危机之前，美国从未试图在很长一段时间内如此大规模地影响高承诺行为。人类是“社会性动物”；提倡保护社区健康的行为，如身体距离，违背了我们的社会本性，如果没有真正相信保护他人重要性的人，就很难维持下去。随着社交媒体和政策环境的变化，新冠肺炎疫情的性质和人们对此的反应也在迅速变化。在危机期间，每天(甚至每小时)关注新闻和社交媒体帖子更是司空见惯，对信息的大量接触会影响我们对世界的看法和感受；最终，它会驱动我们的行为。然而，能够实时记录这些快速变化的情况很少见。这项研究利用该团队在社交媒体沟通建模和分析方面的进展，利用社交媒体数据和自我报告调查，在2个月的时间里考察了社会规范、情绪(包括愤怒和内疚)和新冠肺炎风险降低行为之间的动态关系。这项研究可以作为促进行为以减缓疾病传播的沟通努力的基础，并可以解释社会规范如何随着时间的推移而变化。密歇根州立大学健康与风险沟通中心支持将研究成果付诸实践。描述性社会规范(常见的)和强制规范(得到他人批准)在危机期间可能比其他时候发展得更快；然而，实时研究规范演变是具有挑战性的。规范的演变在一定程度上是由沟通塑造的，既有中介的，也有人际的。新冠肺炎大流行中出现了身体距离，这意味着人们更多地依赖媒体获取信息，人际接触也更少。理解规范的起源及其在全球大流行期间的实时演变至关重要，因为规范预测危险行为。此外，个体对自己遵守描述性和禁止性规范的看法与离散的情绪和身体距离等危险行为是不同的。这项研究提出并测试了关于社会规范、离散情绪(包括愤怒和内疚)以及通过身体距离降低风险之间关系的预测。这些方法结合了滚动横断面调查和社交媒体抓取技术。这项研究以最近完成的一项全国Qualtrics调查为基准。项目成果将被翻译用于沟通干预措施，以促进降低风险，减少新冠肺炎的传播和未来传染病的爆发。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。