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

在2020年新冠肺炎危机之前，美国从未试图在如此长时间内大规模影响高承诺行为。人类是“社会性动物”；提倡保护社区健康的行为，比如保持身体距离，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，就很难维持这种行为。随着社交媒体和政策环境的变化，COVID-19大流行的性质和人们的应对措施正在迅速发生变化。在危机期间，每天（甚至每小时）关注新闻和社交媒体帖子更为常见，这种信息量会影响我们对世界的看法和感受；最终，它驱动着我们的行为。然而，能够实时记录这些快速变化是很少见的。本研究利用该团队在社交媒体沟通建模和分析方面的进展，在两个月的时间里，利用社交媒体数据和自我报告调查，研究了社会规范、情绪（包括愤怒和内疚）和COVID-19风险降低行为之间的动态关系。这项研究可以作为沟通努力的基础，以促进减缓疾病传播的行为，它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交流中心支持将研究成果付诸实践。描述性社会规范（常见的）和禁令性规范（得到他人的认可）可能在危机期间比其他时期发展得更快；然而，实时研究规范演变是一项挑战。在某种程度上，规范的演变是由中介和人际沟通形成的。在2019冠状病毒病大流行期间，保持身体距离意味着更多地依赖媒体获取信息，减少人际接触。在全球大流行期间，了解规范的起源及其实时演变至关重要，因为规范可以预测风险行为。此外，个体对其遵守描述性和禁令性规范的看法与离散情绪和风险行为（如身体距离）共同变化。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）以及通过保持身体距离来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。这项研究利用了最近完成的全国素质调查作为基准。将项目研究结果转化为宣传干预措施，以促进降低风险，减少COVID-19的传播和未来的传染病暴发。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知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.