Acceptance and Adoption of Protective Measures During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Trust in Politics and Trust in Science

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Abstract

The United Nations have described the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as the worst global crisis since the second world war. Behavioral protective measures, such as good hand hygiene and social distancing, may strongly affect infection and fatality rates worldwide. In two studies (total N = 962), we aimed to identify central predictors of acceptance and adoption of protective measures, including sociodemographic variables, risk perception, and trust. We found that men and younger participants show lower acceptance and adoption of protective measures, suggesting that it is crucial to develop targeted health messages for these groups. Moreover, trust in politics and trust in science emerged as important predictors for the acceptance and adoption of protective measures. These results show that maintaining and ideally strengthening trust in politics and trust in science might be central for overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented personal, social, and economic costs worldwide.
A better understanding of the acceptance and adoption of protective measures is crucial.
Trust in politics and trust in science emerged as important predictors of protective measures.
Implications for effective health and science communication are derived.

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Most cited references 33

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An Integrative Model Of Organizational Trust

Roger Mayer, James H Davis, F. Schoorman (1995)

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Identifying careless responses in survey data.

Adam Meade, S Bartholomew Craig (2012)

When data are collected via anonymous Internet surveys, particularly under conditions of obligatory participation (such as with student samples), data quality can be a concern. However, little guidance exists in the published literature regarding techniques for detecting careless responses. Previously several potential approaches have been suggested for identifying careless respondents via indices computed from the data, yet almost no prior work has examined the relationships among these indicators or the types of data patterns identified by each. In 2 studies, we examined several methods for identifying careless responses, including (a) special items designed to detect careless response, (b) response consistency indices formed from responses to typical survey items, (c) multivariate outlier analysis, (d) response time, and (e) self-reported diligence. Results indicated that there are two distinct patterns of careless response (random and nonrandom) and that different indices are needed to identify these different response patterns. We also found that approximately 10%-12% of undergraduates completing a lengthy survey for course credit were identified as careless responders. In Study 2, we simulated data with known random response patterns to determine the efficacy of several indicators of careless response. We found that the nature of the data strongly influenced the efficacy of the indices to identify careless responses. Recommendations include using identified rather than anonymous responses, incorporating instructed response items before data collection, as well as computing consistency indices and multivariate outlier analysis to ensure high-quality data.

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Demographic and attitudinal determinants of protective behaviours during a pandemic: A review

Alison Bish, Susan Michie (2011)

Purpose. A new strain of H1N1 influenza, also known as swine flu was confirmed in the UK in May 2009 and has spread to over 100 countries around the world causing the World Health Organization to declare a global flu pandemic. The primary objectives of this review are to identify the key demographic and attitudinal determinants of three types of protective behaviour during a pandemic: preventive, avoidant, and management of illness behaviours, in order to describe conceptual frameworks in which to better understand these behaviours and to inform future communications and interventions in the current outbreak of swine flu and subsequent influenza pandemics. Methods. Web of Science and PubMed databases were searched for references to papers on severe acute respiratory syndrome, avian influenza/flu, H5N1, swine influenza/flu, H1N1, and pandemics. Forward searching of the identified references was also carried out. In addition, references were gleaned from an expert panel of the Behaviour and Communications sub‐group of the UK Scientific Pandemic Influenza Advisory Group. Papers were included if they reported associations between demographic factors, attitudes, and a behavioural measure (reported, intended, or actual behaviour). Results. Twenty‐six papers were identified that met the study inclusion criteria. The studies were of variable quality and most lacked an explicit theoretical framework. Most were cross‐sectional in design and therefore not predictive over time. The research shows that there are demographic differences in behaviour: being older, female and more educated, or non‐White, is associated with a higher chance of adopting the behaviours. There is evidence that greater levels of perceived susceptibility to and perceived severity of the diseases and greater belief in the effectiveness of recommended behaviours to protect against the disease are important predictors of behaviour. There is also evidence that greater levels of state anxiety and greater trust in authorities are associated with behaviour. Conclusions. The findings from this review can be broadly explained by theories of health behaviour. However, theoretically driven prospective studies are required to further clarify the relationship between demographic factors, attitudes, and behaviour. The findings suggest that intervention studies and communication strategies should focus on particular demographic groups and on raising levels of perceived threat of the pandemic disease and belief in the effectiveness of measures designed to protect against it.

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Journal

Journal ID (publisher-id): SPB

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Soc Psychol Bull

Title: Social Psychological Bulletin

Abbreviated Title: Soc. Psychol. Bull.

Publisher: PsychOpen

ISSN (Electronic): 2569-653X

Publication date (Electronic): 23 December 2020

Publication date Collection: 2020

Volume: 15

Issue: 4

Electronic Location Identifier: e4315

Affiliations

[a ]Social Cognition Center Cologne, University of Cologne , Cologne, Germany

[2]Social Behavior Research Center, Wroclaw Faculty of Psychology, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Wrocław, Poland

[3]Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Colchester, United Kingdom

[4]Faculty of Psychology, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland

Author notes

[* ]Social Cognition Center Cologne, University of Cologne, Richard-Strauss-Str. 2, 50931 Cologne, Germany. simone.dohle@ 123456uni-koeln.de

Article

Publisher ID: spb.4315

DOI: 10.32872/spb.4315

SO-VID: 7ec1a0f4-969a-406b-a4a6-8eea64c760a9

License:

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Acceptance and Adoption of Protective Measures During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Trust in Politics and Trust in Science

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Novel Coronavirus Disease COVID-19

Most cited references 33

An Integrative Model Of Organizational Trust

Identifying careless responses in survey data.

Demographic and attitudinal determinants of protective behaviours during a pandemic: A review

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