RAPID: How social norms impact COVID-19 transmission behaviors

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Until a vaccine is developed, behavior change is the only way to stem the transmission of COVID-19 and safely resume economic activities. Social norms – aggregate behaviors, private preferences, judgments of behaviors, etc. – affect individuals' likelihood of adopting behavior change and must be understood in order to model effectively the impact of behavior-based interventions on disease transmission. This project investigates how community norms and normative pressures, in conjunction with population demographic composition, government policies, and information that people receive, determine behaviors targeted by COVID-19 health interventions. The results of the research will be disseminated quickly and broadly to facilitate efforts to stem disease transmission. The research trains a U.S. based graduate student and undergraduate students. The study evaluates two causal relationships: 1) how government policies and individual traits (e.g., socio-economic position, personality) cause an individual to adopt a behavior (e.g., interpersonal distance, mask wearing); and 2) how aggregate patterns at the community level cause differences in transmission patterns. Surveys will be administered in five populations, one rural with limited exposure, and four urban with differences in the control measures that have been implemented. The researchers will collect longitudinal and time-series cross-sectional survey data to document 1) how people make interpersonal interaction and personal hygiene behavioral decisions; 2) how interpersonal interaction and personal hygiene norms change in each community during the pandemic; and 3) how the prevailing norms and shifts in those norms impact COVID-19 transmission patterns.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.