Do disasters trigger protests? A conceptual view of the connection between disasters, injustice, and protests—The case of COVID-19

People around the globe are affected by disasters far beyond the disaster properties. Given that certain social groups are affected disproportionately, disasters need to be considered as political events which may cause political actions. Therefore, we aim to discuss, from a social psychological perspective, how and why protests might occur during or after a disaster. We argue for an elaborated model of collective action participation suggesting that disasters enhance the predictors of protest mobilization and participation though emerged or enhanced social injustice. We also suggest that disaster properties can be used to delegitimise protests and social movements, limiting the mobilization and collective resilience during and after a disaster. Finally, we discuss the gaps in current research and emphasize the need for more attention to the disaster-protest link as we can expect more disasters due to climate crisis, likely to lead to more protests and political collective action. Copyright © 2022 Vestergren, Uysal and Tekin.

Does social influence affect COVID-19 vaccination intention among the unvaccinated?

Conformist social influence is a double-edged sword when it comes to vaccine promotion. On the one hand, social influence may increase vaccine uptake by reassuring the hesitant about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine;on the other, people may forgo the cost of vaccination when the majority is already vaccinated - giving rise to a public goods dilemma. Here, we examine whether available information on the percentage of double-vaccinated people affects COVID-19 vaccination intention among unvaccinated people in Turkey. In an online experiment, we divided participants (n = 1013) into low, intermediate, and high social influence conditions, reflecting the government's vaccine promotion messages. We found that social influence did not predict COVID-19 vaccination intention, but psychological reactance and collectivism did. People with higher reactance (intolerance of others telling one what to do and being sceptical of consensus views) had lower vaccination intention, whilst people with higher collectivism (how much a person considers group benefits over individual success) had higher vaccination intention. Our findings suggest that advertising the percentage of double-vaccinated people is not sufficient to trigger a cascade of others getting themselves vaccinated. Diverse promotion strategies reflecting the heterogeneity of individual attitudes could be more effective. Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press.

Barriers of emergent psychological groupness predict stockpiling during the pandemic: Lack of trust, media exposure, and anxiety

The stockpiling behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic emerged as an example for situations where cooperation is inhibited by lack of trust, media exposure, and increased anxiety. In this paper, I test the hypothesis that stockpiling results from social psychological factors that prevent psychological groupness and cooperation (e.g., low trust in governments and other citizens, high frequency of news exposure, high pandemic anxiety), rather than being an inherently selfish and uncontrollable panic behavior. Specifically, I hypothesized that lower levels of satisfaction with the governments' COVID-19 policies, lower trust in people in following physical distancing rules, and more frequent media exposure would predict higher stockpiling behaviors through increased pandemic-related anxiety. In a cross-sectional survey study conducted in Turkey and the UK during the first-wave of the pandemic (N = 5137), I tested a conceptual model via SEM. Findings showed that lower trust in people, lower satisfaction with governments' COVID-19 policies, and high exposure to news predicted higher pandemic related anxiety which predicted higher stockpiling in both countries. I discussed that governments policies and media in both countries may be the reason for mass stockpiling behaviors by decreasing predictability and trust.