RAPID: How social norms impact COVID-19 transmission behaviors

在研制出疫苗之前，改变行为是阻止新冠肺炎传播并安全恢复经济活动的唯一途径。社会规范--总体行为、个人偏好、对行为的判断等--影响个人采取行为改变的可能性，必须加以理解，以便有效地模拟以行为为基础的干预措施对疾病传播的影响。该项目调查社区规范和规范压力，以及人口结构、政府政策和人们收到的信息，如何决定新冠肺炎健康干预措施的目标行为。研究结果将迅速和广泛地传播，以促进遏制疾病传播的努力。这项研究培养了一名美国研究生和本科生。这项研究评估了两种因果关系：1)政府政策和个人特征(例如，社会经济地位、个性)如何导致个人采取某种行为(例如，人际距离、戴口罩)；以及2)社区层面的聚合模式如何导致传播模式的差异。将在五个人群中进行调查，其中一个是接触有限的农村人口，四个是在已实施的控制措施方面存在差异的城市人口。研究人员将收集纵向和时间序列的横断面调查数据，以记录1)人们如何做出人际互动和个人卫生行为决定；2)人际互动和个人卫生规范在疫情期间如何在每个社区发生变化；3)流行的规范和这些规范的变化如何影响新冠肺炎的传播模式。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。

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.