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Cited by 44Communication and COVID-19 ImpactCOVID-19 Prevention and ImpactExperimental Behavioral Economics Studies

Let’s (not) get together! The role of social norms on social distancing during COVID-19

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Martínez, Déborah, Parilli, Cristina, Scartascini, Carlos, Simpser, Alberto·2021·PLOS ONE
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0247454PMC PMC7924783
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Abstract

While effective preventive measures against COVID-19 are now widely known, many individuals fail to adopt them. This article provides experimental evidence about one potentially important driver of compliance with social distancing: social norms. We asked each of 23,000 survey respondents in Mexico to predict how a fictional person would behave when faced with the choice about whether or not to attend a friend’s birthday gathering. Every respondent was randomly assigned to one of four social norms conditions. Expecting that other people would attend the gathering and/or believing that other people approved of attending the gathering both increased the predicted probability that the fictional character would attend the gathering by 25%, in comparison with a scenario where other people were not expected to attend nor to approve of attending. Our results speak to the potential effects of communication campaigns and media coverage of compliance with, and normative views about, COVID-19 preventive measures. They also suggest that policies aimed at modifying social norms or making existing ones salient could impact compliance.

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  • Effective peer modelling of social distancing behaviour may consist of peer leaders in community settings or social media influencers demonstrating and promoting this behaviour, rather than politicising this behaviour through authoritarian messaging styles.

    “Effective peer modelling of social distancing behaviour may consist of peer leaders in community settings or social media influencers demonstrating and promoting this behaviour, rather than politicising this behaviour through authoritarian messaging styles [37, 25].”

    From Facilitators and barriers to social distancing for young people during the COVID-19 pandemic (2022) · cites this paper as [25]

    The Theoretical background says people may imitate others’ behaviour and that media coverage showing compliance could help. The Conclusion warns that politicization can erode compliance and recommends highlighting others’ compliance. The paper does not specifically recommend community peer leaders or social media influencers, or compare their modelling with authoritarian messaging styles; no page numbers are available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.84)

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Cites

  • Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response

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    BackgroundInfluential

  • Social norms and energy conservation

    Allcott, H. (2011) · Journal of Public Economics · doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2011.03.003 · Cited by 2,715 · cited 2× · see citing works

    “2009; Allcott, 2011; Ferraro et al., 2011; Hallsworth et al., 2016; Bhanot, 2018), and social norms can also affect willingness to enforce and sanction violations (Schelling, 1960; Traxler & Winter, 2012; Acemoglu & Jackson, 2017). Social norms could be extremely relevant for explaining and affecting behaviors during…”
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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Martínez, D., Parilli, C., Scartascini, C., & Simpser, A.
Affiliations
  • Inter-American Development Bank (US)
  • Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (MX)
Corresponding author
Scartascini, Carlos
ORCID
Venue
PLOS ONE
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Published
2021-03-02
Volume
16
Issue
3
Pages
e0247454
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0247454
PMC
PMC7924783
OpenAlex
W3130941659
Cited by
44
References
2
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 6
FWCI
12.56
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Informationszentrum Lebenswissenschaften (ZB MED) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
  • Inter-American Development Bank
  • Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Communication › Communication and COVID-19 Impact
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › COVID-19 Prevention and Impact
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies
Keywords
social norms, social distancing, COVID-19 pandemic, preventive behavior, normative beliefs, descriptive norms, communication campaigns, media coverage, public health policy, behavior change
MeSH terms
Physical Distancing, COVID-19, Adult, Aged, Female, Humans, Male, Mexico, Middle Aged, Quarantine, Surveys and Questionnaires, Social Norms

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