Trusting to abide: The role of institutional and interpersonal trust for the support of COVID-19 prevention behaviors and policies and the mediating role of national identification (preprint)

Trust in the era of the pandemic has been a key determining factor of compliance with health protective behaviors and policies. However, little has been evidenced on underlying mechanisms of this relationship, such as national identification. Lack of trust may give rise to xenophobic attitudes, making national identities salient and leading to perceptions of foreigners as a threat against domestic public health states and economies but, on the other hand, trust may ensure shared social identifications as a nation as highly important. To gain a better understanding of how different levels of trust – interpersonal, institutional and trust towards science – has affected health containment behaviors and support of public health policies, as well as what the mediating role of national identification is, we analyzed a national representative sample from the United Kingdom (Total N = 895). We found that the different measures of trust, as well as national identification, positively predicted abidance to health containment behaviors as well as support of public health policies. Facets of trust were also mediated by national identification to predict health containment behaviors and support for public health policies. We discuss the results in light of the societal significance of restoration and assurance of people’s multilevel trust amidst the still evolving hygienic crisis that threatens nations worldwide.

Morality in the echo chamber: The relationship between belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories and public health support and the mediating role of moral identity and morality-as-cooperation across 67 countries (preprint)

Believing in conspiracy theories is a major problem, especially in the face of a pandemic, as these constitute a significant obstacle to public health policies, like the use of masks and vaccination. Indeed, during the COVID-19 pandemic, several ungrounded explanations regarding the origin of the virus or the effects of vaccinations have been rising, leading to vaccination hesitancy or refusal which poses as a threat to public health. Recent studies have shown that in the core of conspiracy theories lies a moral evaluation component; one that triggers a moral reasoning which reinforces the conspiracy itself. To gain a better understanding of how conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 affect public health containment behaviors and policy support via morality-relevant variables, we analysed comprehensive data from the International Collaboration on the Social & Moral Psychology (ICSMP) of COVID-19, consisting of 49.965 participants across 67 countries. We particularly explored the mediating role of two levels of morality: individual and group-based morality. Results show that believing in conspiracy theories reduces adoption of containment health-related behaviors and policy support of public health measures, but moral identity and morality-as-cooperation significantly mediate this relationship. This means that beliefs in conspiracy theories do not simply constitute antecedents of cognitive biases or failures, nor maladaptive behaviors based on personality traits, but are morally infused and should be dealt as such. Based on our findings, we further discuss the psychological, moral, and political implications of endorsement of conspiracy theories in the era of the pandemic.

National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic (preprint)

Changing collective behaviour and supporting non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important component in mitigating virus transmission during a pandemic. In a large international collaboration (Study 1, N = 49,968 across 67 countries), we investigated self-reported factors that associated with people reported adopting public health behaviours (e.g., spatial distancing and stricter hygiene) and endorsed public policy interventions (e.g., closing bars and restaurants) during the early stage of the pandemic (April-May 2020). Respondents who reported identifying more strongly with their nation consistently reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies. Results were similar for representative and non-representative national samples. Study 2 (N = 42 countries) conceptually replicated the central finding using aggregate indices of national identity (obtained using the World Values Survey) and a measure of actual behaviour change during the pandemic (obtained from Google mobility reports). Higher levels of national identification prior to the pandemic predicted lower mobility during the early stage of the pandemic (r = -.40). We discuss the potential implications of links between national identity, leadership, and public health for managing COVID-19 and future pandemics.