Changes in social norms during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic across 43 countries

Giulia Andrighetto; Aron Szekely; Andrea Guido; Michele Gelfand; Jered Abernathy; Gizem Arikan; Zeynep Aycan; Shweta Bankar; Davide Barrera; Dana Basnight-Brown; Anabel Belaus; Elizaveta Berezina; Sheyla Blumen; Paweł Boski; Huyen Thi Thu Bui; Juan Camilo Cárdenas; Đorđe Čekrlija; Mícheál de Barra; Piyanjali de Zoysa; Angela Dorrough; Jan B. Engelmann; Hyun Euh; Susann Fiedler; Olivia Foster-Gimbel; Gonçalo Freitas; Marta Fülöp; Ragna B. Gardarsdottir; Colin Mathew Hugues D. Gill; Andreas Glöckner; Sylvie Graf; Ani Grigoryan; Katarzyna Growiec; Hirofumi Hashimoto; Tim Hopthrow; Martina Hřebíčková; Hirotaka Imada; Yoshio Kamijo; Hansika Kapoor; Yoshihisa Kashima; Narine Khachatryan; Natalia Kharchenko; Diana León; Lisa M. Leslie; Yang Li; Kadi Liik; Marco Tullio Liuzza; Angela T. Maitner; Pavan Mamidi; Michele McArdle; Imed Medhioub; Maria Luisa Mendes Teixeira; Sari Mentser; Francisco Morales; Jayanth Narayanan; Kohei Nitta; Ravit Nussinson; Nneoma G. Onyedire; Ike E. Onyishi; Evgeny Osin; Seniha Özden; Penny Panagiotopoulou; Oleksandr Pereverziev; Lorena R. Perez-Floriano; Anna-Maija Pirttilä-Backman; Marianna Pogosyan; Jana Raver; Cecilia Reyna; Ricardo Borges Rodrigues; Sara Romanò; Pedro P. Romero; Inari Sakki; Angel Sánchez; Sara Sherbaji; Brent Simpson; Lorenzo Spadoni; Eftychia Stamkou; Giovanni A. Travaglino; Paul A. M. Van Lange; Fiona Fira Winata; Rizqy Amelia Zein; Qing-Peng Zhang; Kimmo Eriksson

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-44999-5

Changes in social norms during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic across 43 countries

Giulia Andrighetto
, Aron Szekely
, Andrea Guido
, Michele Gelfand
, Jered Abernathy
, Gizem Arikan
, Zeynep Aycan
, Shweta Bankar
, Davide Barrera
, Dana Basnight-Brown
, Anabel Belaus
, Elizaveta Berezina
, Sheyla Blumen
, Paweł Boski
, Huyen Thi Thu Bui
, Juan Camilo Cárdenas
, Đorđe Čekrlija
, Mícheál de Barra
, Piyanjali de Zoysa
, Angela Dorrough

Jan B. Engelmann, Hyun Euh, Susann Fiedler, Olivia Foster-Gimbel, Gonçalo Freitas, Marta Fülöp, Ragna B. Gardarsdottir, Colin Mathew Hugues D. Gill, Andreas Glöckner, Sylvie Graf, Ani Grigoryan, Katarzyna Growiec, Hirofumi Hashimoto, Tim Hopthrow, Martina Hřebíčková, Hirotaka Imada, Yoshio Kamijo, Hansika Kapoor, Yoshihisa Kashima, Narine Khachatryan, Natalia Kharchenko, Diana León, Lisa M. Leslie, Yang Li, Kadi Liik, Marco Tullio Liuzza, Angela T. Maitner, Pavan Mamidi, Michele McArdle, Imed Medhioub, Maria Luisa Mendes Teixeira, Sari Mentser, Francisco Morales, Jayanth Narayanan, Kohei Nitta, Ravit Nussinson, Nneoma G. Onyedire, Ike E. Onyishi, Evgeny Osin, Seniha Özden, Penny Panagiotopoulou, Oleksandr Pereverziev, Lorena R. Perez-Floriano, Anna-Maija Pirttilä-Backman, Marianna Pogosyan, Jana Raver, Cecilia Reyna, Ricardo Borges Rodrigues, Sara Romanò, Pedro P. Romero, Inari Sakki, Angel Sánchez, Sara Sherbaji, Brent Simpson, Lorenzo Spadoni, Eftychia Stamkou, Giovanni A. Travaglino, Paul A. M. Van Lange, Fiona Fira Winata, Rizqy Amelia Zein, Qing-Peng Zhang, Kimmo Eriksson

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

The emergence of COVID-19 dramatically changed social behavior across societies and contexts. Here we study whether social norms also changed. Specifically, we study this question for cultural tightness (the degree to which societies generally have strong norms), specific social norms (e.g. stealing, hand washing), and norms about enforcement, using survey data from 30,431 respondents in 43 countries recorded before and in the early stages following the emergence of COVID-19. Using variation in disease intensity, we shed light on the mechanisms predicting changes in social norm measures. We find evidence that, after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, hand washing norms increased while tightness and punishing frequency slightly decreased but observe no evidence for a robust change in most other norms. Thus, at least in the short term, our findings suggest that cultures are largely stable to pandemic threats except in those norms, hand washing in this case, that are perceived to be directly relevant to dealing with the collective threat.

Original language	English
Article number	1436
Pages (from-to)	1-11
Number of pages	11
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	15
Early online date	16 Feb 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-44999-5
Publication status	Published - 2024

Funding

Knut and Wallenberg Grant “How do human norms form and change?” 2016.0167. (G.An.). The Swedish Research Council grant “Norms & Risk: Do social norms help dealing with collective threats” 2021-06271 (G.An.). Ministero dell’Istruzione dell’Università e della Ricerca, PRIN 2017, prot. 20178TRM3F (D.B.). Universidad de Los Andes, Fondo Vicerrectoría de Investigaciones (J.-C.C.). Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary, National Research, Development and Innovation Fund NKFIH-OTKA K135963 (M.F.). Grant 23-061770 S of the Czech Science Foundation (M.H. and S.G.). RVO: 68081740 of the Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences (M.H. and S.G.). RA Science Committee, research project N.20TTSH-070 (A.Gr. and N.Khac.). Open University of Israel, 511687 (R.N.). HSE University Basic Research Program (E.O.). Project BASIC (PID2022-141802NB-I00) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe” (A.Sá.). US Army Research Office Grant W911NF-19-1-910281 (B.S.). Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, 019.183SG.001 (E.S.). Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, VI.Veni.201 G.013 (E.S.). European Commission, Horizon 2020-ID 870827 (E.S.). UKRI Grant “Secret Power” No. EP/X02170X/1 awarded under the European Commission’s “European Research Council - STG” Scheme (G.A.T.). Knut and Wallenberg Grant “How do human norms form and change?” 2016.0167. (G.An.). The Swedish Research Council grant “Norms & Risk: Do social norms help dealing with collective threats” 2021-06271 (G.An.). Ministero dell’Istruzione dell’Università e della Ricerca, PRIN 2017, prot. 20178TRM3F (D.B.). Universidad de Los Andes, Fondo Vicerrectoría de Investigaciones (J.-C.C.). Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary, National Research, Development and Innovation Fund NKFIH-OTKA K135963 (M.F.). Grant 23-061770 S of the Czech Science Foundation (M.H. and S.G.). RVO: 68081740 of the Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences (M.H. and S.G.). RA Science Committee, research project N.20TTSH-070 (A.Gr. and N.Khac.). Open University of Israel, 511687 (R.N.). HSE University Basic Research Program (E.O.). Project BASIC (PID2022-141802NB-I00) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe” (A.Sá.). US Army Research Office Grant W911NF-19-1-910281 (B.S.). Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, 019.183SG.001 (E.S.). Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, VI.Veni.201 G.013 (E.S.). European Commission, Horizon 2020-ID 870827 (E.S.). UKRI Grant “Secret Power” No. EP/X02170X/1 awarded under the European Commission’s “European Research Council - STG” Scheme (G.A.T.).

Funders	Funder number
Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Akademie Věd České Republiky
European Commission
Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary
European Research Council
Open University of Israel	511687
Army Research Office	019.183SG.001, 2020-ID 870827, W911NF-19-1-910281, VI.Veni.201 G.013
Vetenskapsrådet	2021-06271
Nemzeti Kutatási, Fejlesztési és Innovaciós Alap	23-061770 S
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme	870827
Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca	20178TRM3F
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science	18K12778
European Regional Development Fund	EP/X02170X/1
Grantová Agentura České Republiky	PID2022-141802NB-I00, MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, 68081740

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10.1038/s41467-024-44999-5

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Andrighetto, G., Szekely, A., Guido, A., Gelfand, M., Abernathy, J., Arikan, G., Aycan, Z., Bankar, S., Barrera, D., Basnight-Brown, D., Belaus, A., Berezina, E., Blumen, S., Boski, P., Bui, H. T. T., Cárdenas, J. C., Čekrlija, Đ., de Barra, M., de Zoysa, P., ... Eriksson, K. (2024). Changes in social norms during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic across 43 countries. Nature Communications, 15, 1-11. Article 1436. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-44999-5

@article{fe8cea08134448f4b12fb3045b629f8a,

title = "Changes in social norms during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic across 43 countries",

abstract = "The emergence of COVID-19 dramatically changed social behavior across societies and contexts. Here we study whether social norms also changed. Specifically, we study this question for cultural tightness (the degree to which societies generally have strong norms), specific social norms (e.g. stealing, hand washing), and norms about enforcement, using survey data from 30,431 respondents in 43 countries recorded before and in the early stages following the emergence of COVID-19. Using variation in disease intensity, we shed light on the mechanisms predicting changes in social norm measures. We find evidence that, after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, hand washing norms increased while tightness and punishing frequency slightly decreased but observe no evidence for a robust change in most other norms. Thus, at least in the short term, our findings suggest that cultures are largely stable to pandemic threats except in those norms, hand washing in this case, that are perceived to be directly relevant to dealing with the collective threat.",

author = "Giulia Andrighetto and Aron Szekely and Andrea Guido and Michele Gelfand and Jered Abernathy and Gizem Arikan and Zeynep Aycan and Shweta Bankar and Davide Barrera and Dana Basnight-Brown and Anabel Belaus and Elizaveta Berezina and Sheyla Blumen and Pawe{\l} Boski and Bui, \{Huyen Thi Thu\} and C{\'a}rdenas, \{Juan Camilo\} and {\D}or{\d}e {\v C}ekrlija and \{de Barra\}, M{\'i}che{\'a}l and \{de Zoysa\}, Piyanjali and Angela Dorrough and Engelmann, \{Jan B.\} and Hyun Euh and Susann Fiedler and Olivia Foster-Gimbel and Gon{\c c}alo Freitas and Marta F{\"u}l{\"o}p and Gardarsdottir, \{Ragna B.\} and Gill, \{Colin Mathew Hugues D.\} and Andreas Gl{\"o}ckner and Sylvie Graf and Ani Grigoryan and Katarzyna Growiec and Hirofumi Hashimoto and Tim Hopthrow and Martina H{\v r}eb{\'i}{\v c}kov{\'a} and Hirotaka Imada and Yoshio Kamijo and Hansika Kapoor and Yoshihisa Kashima and Narine Khachatryan and Natalia Kharchenko and Diana Le{\'o}n and Leslie, \{Lisa M.\} and Yang Li and Kadi Liik and Liuzza, \{Marco Tullio\} and Maitner, \{Angela T.\} and Pavan Mamidi and Michele McArdle and Imed Medhioub and Teixeira, \{Maria Luisa Mendes\} and Sari Mentser and Francisco Morales and Jayanth Narayanan and Kohei Nitta and Ravit Nussinson and Onyedire, \{Nneoma G.\} and Onyishi, \{Ike E.\} and Evgeny Osin and Seniha {\"O}zden and Penny Panagiotopoulou and Oleksandr Pereverziev and Perez-Floriano, \{Lorena R.\} and Anna-Maija Pirttil{\"a}-Backman and Marianna Pogosyan and Jana Raver and Cecilia Reyna and Rodrigues, \{Ricardo Borges\} and Sara Roman{\`o} and Romero, \{Pedro P.\} and Inari Sakki and Angel S{\'a}nchez and Sara Sherbaji and Brent Simpson and Lorenzo Spadoni and Eftychia Stamkou and Travaglino, \{Giovanni A.\} and \{Van Lange\}, \{Paul A. M.\} and Winata, \{Fiona Fira\} and Zein, \{Rizqy Amelia\} and Qing-Peng Zhang and Kimmo Eriksson",

year = "2024",

doi = "10.1038/s41467-024-44999-5",

language = "English",

volume = "15",

pages = "1--11",

journal = "Nature Communications",

issn = "2041-1723",

publisher = "Nature Research",

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Andrighetto, G, Szekely, A, Guido, A, Gelfand, M, Abernathy, J, Arikan, G, Aycan, Z, Bankar, S, Barrera, D, Basnight-Brown, D, Belaus, A, Berezina, E, Blumen, S, Boski, P, Bui, HTT, Cárdenas, JC, Čekrlija, Đ, de Barra, M, de Zoysa, P, Dorrough, A, Engelmann, JB, Euh, H, Fiedler, S, Foster-Gimbel, O, Freitas, G, Fülöp, M, Gardarsdottir, RB, Gill, CMHD, Glöckner, A, Graf, S, Grigoryan, A, Growiec, K, Hashimoto, H, Hopthrow, T, Hřebíčková, M, Imada, H, Kamijo, Y, Kapoor, H, Kashima, Y, Khachatryan, N, Kharchenko, N, León, D, Leslie, LM, Li, Y, Liik, K, Liuzza, MT, Maitner, AT, Mamidi, P, McArdle, M, Medhioub, I, Teixeira, MLM, Mentser, S, Morales, F, Narayanan, J, Nitta, K, Nussinson, R, Onyedire, NG, Onyishi, IE, Osin, E, Özden, S, Panagiotopoulou, P, Pereverziev, O, Perez-Floriano, LR, Pirttilä-Backman, A-M, Pogosyan, M, Raver, J, Reyna, C, Rodrigues, RB, Romanò, S, Romero, PP, Sakki, I, Sánchez, A, Sherbaji, S, Simpson, B, Spadoni, L, Stamkou, E, Travaglino, GA, Van Lange, PAM, Winata, FF, Zein, RA, Zhang, Q-P & Eriksson, K 2024, 'Changes in social norms during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic across 43 countries', Nature Communications, vol. 15, 1436, pp. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-44999-5

TY - JOUR

T1 - Changes in social norms during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic across 43 countries

AU - Andrighetto, Giulia

AU - Szekely, Aron

AU - Guido, Andrea

AU - Gelfand, Michele

AU - Abernathy, Jered

AU - Arikan, Gizem

AU - Aycan, Zeynep

AU - Bankar, Shweta

AU - Barrera, Davide

AU - Basnight-Brown, Dana

AU - Belaus, Anabel

AU - Berezina, Elizaveta

AU - Blumen, Sheyla

AU - Boski, Paweł

AU - Bui, Huyen Thi Thu

AU - Cárdenas, Juan Camilo

AU - Čekrlija, Đorđe

AU - de Barra, Mícheál

AU - de Zoysa, Piyanjali

AU - Dorrough, Angela

AU - Engelmann, Jan B.

AU - Euh, Hyun

AU - Fiedler, Susann

AU - Foster-Gimbel, Olivia

AU - Freitas, Gonçalo

AU - Fülöp, Marta

AU - Gardarsdottir, Ragna B.

AU - Gill, Colin Mathew Hugues D.

AU - Glöckner, Andreas

AU - Graf, Sylvie

AU - Grigoryan, Ani

AU - Growiec, Katarzyna

AU - Hashimoto, Hirofumi

AU - Hopthrow, Tim

AU - Hřebíčková, Martina

AU - Imada, Hirotaka

AU - Kamijo, Yoshio

AU - Kapoor, Hansika

AU - Kashima, Yoshihisa

AU - Khachatryan, Narine

AU - Kharchenko, Natalia

AU - León, Diana

AU - Leslie, Lisa M.

AU - Li, Yang

AU - Liik, Kadi

AU - Liuzza, Marco Tullio

AU - Maitner, Angela T.

AU - Mamidi, Pavan

AU - McArdle, Michele

AU - Medhioub, Imed

AU - Teixeira, Maria Luisa Mendes

AU - Mentser, Sari

AU - Morales, Francisco

AU - Narayanan, Jayanth

AU - Nitta, Kohei

AU - Nussinson, Ravit

AU - Onyedire, Nneoma G.

AU - Onyishi, Ike E.

AU - Osin, Evgeny

AU - Özden, Seniha

AU - Panagiotopoulou, Penny

AU - Pereverziev, Oleksandr

AU - Perez-Floriano, Lorena R.

AU - Pirttilä-Backman, Anna-Maija

AU - Pogosyan, Marianna

AU - Raver, Jana

AU - Reyna, Cecilia

AU - Rodrigues, Ricardo Borges

AU - Romanò, Sara

AU - Romero, Pedro P.

AU - Sakki, Inari

AU - Sánchez, Angel

AU - Sherbaji, Sara

AU - Simpson, Brent

AU - Spadoni, Lorenzo

AU - Stamkou, Eftychia

AU - Travaglino, Giovanni A.

AU - Van Lange, Paul A. M.

AU - Winata, Fiona Fira

AU - Zein, Rizqy Amelia

AU - Zhang, Qing-Peng

AU - Eriksson, Kimmo

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - The emergence of COVID-19 dramatically changed social behavior across societies and contexts. Here we study whether social norms also changed. Specifically, we study this question for cultural tightness (the degree to which societies generally have strong norms), specific social norms (e.g. stealing, hand washing), and norms about enforcement, using survey data from 30,431 respondents in 43 countries recorded before and in the early stages following the emergence of COVID-19. Using variation in disease intensity, we shed light on the mechanisms predicting changes in social norm measures. We find evidence that, after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, hand washing norms increased while tightness and punishing frequency slightly decreased but observe no evidence for a robust change in most other norms. Thus, at least in the short term, our findings suggest that cultures are largely stable to pandemic threats except in those norms, hand washing in this case, that are perceived to be directly relevant to dealing with the collective threat.

AB - The emergence of COVID-19 dramatically changed social behavior across societies and contexts. Here we study whether social norms also changed. Specifically, we study this question for cultural tightness (the degree to which societies generally have strong norms), specific social norms (e.g. stealing, hand washing), and norms about enforcement, using survey data from 30,431 respondents in 43 countries recorded before and in the early stages following the emergence of COVID-19. Using variation in disease intensity, we shed light on the mechanisms predicting changes in social norm measures. We find evidence that, after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, hand washing norms increased while tightness and punishing frequency slightly decreased but observe no evidence for a robust change in most other norms. Thus, at least in the short term, our findings suggest that cultures are largely stable to pandemic threats except in those norms, hand washing in this case, that are perceived to be directly relevant to dealing with the collective threat.

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UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85185327632#tab=citedBy

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-024-44999-5

DO - 10.1038/s41467-024-44999-5

M3 - Article

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 15

SP - 1

EP - 11

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

M1 - 1436

ER -

Changes in social norms during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic across 43 countries

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