RAPID: Collaborative Research: Social Distancing During Pandemics: Developing Methods to Balance Affiliation and Disease-Avoidance Motivations

人们有一种强烈的互动需求。他们也有强烈的避免疾病的愿望。社交距离是阻止疾病传播的主要行为方式。然而，社交距离与社交互动的自然愿望背道而驰。这两种动机之间的紧张关系可能会导致心理痛苦，并可能导致人们在努力缓解压力和孤独时违反面对面接触的限制。对于无法获得高度身临其境的虚拟社交形式的人来说，这尤其有可能，例如基于互联网的视频通话，让人们看到朋友和家人。它也可能更经常适用于老年人(他们最容易受到新冠肺炎的影响)，因为他们对基于技术的互动平台不太熟悉。通过更好地了解人们如何解决与他人互动的需要和避免疾病的愿望之间的紧张关系，该项目将为旨在遏制疾病传播的公共卫生干预措施的发展提供信息。该项目将把需要与避免疾病的愿望联系起来。其中一个目的是为制定干预措施提供信息，这些干预措施旨在避免在进行社交疏远时感到孤独。研究1从相同的参与者那里收集了多天的数据。孤独感的测量，对疾病的担忧，以及社交互动的数量和类型都将被收集。这项研究测试了一种假设，即接触虚拟社交活动有限的参与者(例如，经济能力有限的人、老年人)将感到最孤独，并报告对疾病的担忧减少，这将与更频繁地违反社交疏远行为有关。研究2通过实验操纵包容和排斥的感觉，以测试社会孤立的影响和对感染疾病的担忧。这两项研究都是基于美国居民的大样本和代表性样本，以确保研究结果适用于美国不同的年龄范围、地理区域和社会经济群体。这项研究阐明了各种心理过程是如何相互对立和相互作用，最终影响社会行为的。这项研究进一步调查了人们如何在不牺牲安全的情况下安全地满足他们加入的动机。长期目标是通知可能开发的干预措施的发展，以促进在当前和未来的大流行期间做出适当的行为反应。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。

People have a powerful need to interact with each other. They also have strong desires to avoid disease. Social distancing is the primary behavioral method to stop disease from spreading. Yet, social distancing goes against the natural desire for social interactions. The tension between those dual motives can cause psychological distress, and may lead people to violate restrictions on face-to-face contact in their effort to relieve stress and loneliness. This is especially likely for people who do not have access to highly immersive forms of virtual socialization, such as internet-based video calls that let people see friends and family. It may also apply more often for older adults (who are most vulnerable to COVID-19) because of less familiarity with technology-based interaction platforms. By better understanding how people resolve the tension between the need to interact with others and the desire to avoid disease, this project will inform the development of public health interventions aimed at curbing the spread of disease.This project contrasts the need to affiliate with the desire to avoid disease. One aim is to inform the development of interventions designed to avoid loneliness while engaging in social distancing. Study 1 collects data from the same participants across multiple days. Measures of loneliness, concerns with contracting an illness, and amounts and types of social interactions will be collected. The research tests the hypothesis that participants with limited access to virtual social interactions (e.g., those with limited financial means, the elderly) will feel most lonely and report decreased concerns about disease, which will be associated with more frequent violations of social distancing behaviors. Study 2 experimentally manipulates feelings of inclusion versus exclusion to test for effects of social isolation and for the concern of contracting the disease. Both studies are based on large and representative samples of U.S. residents to ensure the findings are applicable across different age ranges, geographical regions, and socioeconomic groups within the country. The research elucidates how various psychological processes work against each other and in interaction to ultimately influence social behavior. The research further investigates how people can safely satisfy their motives to affiliate without sacrificing safety. The long-term goal is to inform the development of interventions that may be developed to promote appropriate behavioral responses during the current and future pandemics.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.