Peers for the Fearless: Social Norms Facilitate Preventive Behaviour when Individuals Perceive Low COVID-19 Health Risks

Autor(en)

Bernhard Kittel, Fabian Kalleitner, David Wolfgang Schiestl

Abstrakt

A strategy frequently adopted to contain the COVID-19 pandemic involves three non-pharmaceutical interventions that depend on high levels of compliance in society: maintaining physical distance from others, minimizing social contacts, and wearing a face mask. These measures require substantial changes in established practices of social interaction, raising the question of which factors motivate individuals to comply with these preventive behaviours. Using Austrian panel survey data from April 2020 to April 2021, we show that perceived health risks, social norms, and trust in political institutions stimulate people to engage in preventive behaviour. A moderation analysis shows that the effectiveness of social norms in facilitating preventive behaviour increases when people’s perceptions of health risks decrease. No such moderation effect is observed for trust in political institutions. These results suggest that strong social norms play a crucial role in achieving high rates of preventive behaviour, especially when perceived levels of health risks are low.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Wirtschaftssoziologie

Journal

PLoS ONE

Band

16

Anzahl der Seiten

20

ISSN

1932-6203

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0260171

Publikationsdatum

12-2021

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

504030 Wirtschaftssoziologie

Schlagwörter

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 3 – Gesundheit und Wohlergehen

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/5c15b22d-6ba9-4836-8709-a11ae5ab0cfa