RAPID: Strategic Science Communication in the COVID-19 Pandemic

新冠肺炎疫情是一场全球性危机，威胁着数以百万计的生命、经济和国家基础设施，包括医疗保健、房地产市场和工业供应链。卫生组织、政府和当地社区已经采取了各种措施来减少大流行的影响。在这一全球背景下，该项目检查和比较人们在不同的文化和治理背景下，随着时间的推移对这些措施的遵守情况。具体地说，它侧重于随着大流行的展开，不同的价值观和信仰体系如何影响(不)遵守遏制措施。通过这样做，这项研究加强了对科学/政策传播及其对公众态度和行为的影响的基本理解。归根结底，该项目有助于确定最佳科学传播做法，以向人们宣传和教育人们有关新冠肺炎和类似危机的信息。旨在遏制新冠肺炎病毒传播的政策和科学建议引发了关于集体价值观与个人价值观优先顺序的关键讨论。权衡往往侧重于公共安全和健康，而不是个人自主权和公民自由。因此，大规模的社会危机有可能在危机期间和之后改变价值优先顺序。通过整合社会心理学和跨文化心理学的理论，本研究探索了包括基本人类价值观、社会价值观和文化价值观在内的不同价值体系在公众应对新冠肺炎疫情中的作用。一个合作研究网络将在大流行期间的三个时间点从具有代表性的成人样本中收集初步数据。在三个月的过程中，对不同价值观的公众认可的变化进行了跟踪。分析的重点是这些变化如何预测对政策和科学建议的态度和行为反应。该项目还审查了诸如大流行的严重性、社会经济状况和现有价值体系等因素在这些变化中的作用。这项研究将促进对基本人类价值观的科学理解，人们如何回应科学传播，以及如何最好地设计此类传播来实现重要的社会目标。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。

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global crisis threatening millions of lives, the economy, and national infrastructures, including healthcare, housing markets, and industrial supply chains. Health organizations, government, and local communities have introduced various measures to reduce the impact of the pandemic. In this global context, this project examines and compares people’s compliance with these measures over time, and across diverse cultural and governance contexts. Specifically, it focuses on how different value and belief systems influence (non-)compliance with containment measures as the pandemic unfolds. In doing so, the research enhances basic understanding of science/policy communications and their impact on public attitudes and behaviors. Ultimately, the project helps identify best science communication practices to inform and educate people about COVID-19 and similar crises. Policies and scientific recommendations aimed to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus have generated critical discussions about the prioritization of collective versus individual values. Tradeoffs often focus on public security and health versus individual autonomy and civil liberties. As a result, large-scale societal crises have the potential to shift value prioritization both during and beyond the crisis. By integrating theories from social and cross-cultural psychology, this research explores the role of different value systems, including basic human values, social values, and cultural values, in public responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. A collaborative research network will collect primary data from representative adult samples at three time points during the pandemic. Changes are tracked in public endorsement of different values over the course of three months. Analyses focus on how these changes predict attitudinal and behavioral responses to policies and scientific recommendations. The project also examines the roles of factors such as the severity of the pandemic, socio-economic condition, and existing value systems in these changes. The research will advance scientific understanding of basic human values, how people respond to science communications, and how best to design such communications to achieve important societal goals.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.