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 m

SUBMITTER: Andrighetto G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10873354 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature