RAPID: Strategic Science Communication in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences - The COVID-19 pandemic is a global crisis threatening millions of lives, the economy, and national infrastructures, including healthcare, housing markets, and industrial supply chains. Health organizations, government, and local communities have introduced various measures to reduce the impact of the pandemic. In this global context, this project examines and compares people?s compliance with these measures over time, and across diverse cultural and governance contexts. Specifically, it focuses on how different value and belief systems influence (non-)compliance with containment measures as the pandemic unfolds. In doing so, the research enhances basic understanding of science/policy communications and their impact on public attitudes and behaviors. Ultimately, the project helps identify best science communication practices to inform and educate people about COVID-19 and similar crises.

Policies and scientific recommendations aimed to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus have generated critical discussions about the prioritization of collective versus individual values. Tradeoffs often focus on public security and health versus individual autonomy and civil liberties. As a result, large-scale societal crises have the potential to shift value prioritization both during and beyond the crisis. By integrating theories from social and cross-cultural psychology, this research explores the role of different value systems, including basic human values, social values, and cultural values, in public responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. A collaborative research network will collect primary data from representative adult samples at three time points during the pandemic. Changes are tracked in public endorsement of different values over the course of three months. Analyses focus on how these changes predict attitudinal and behavioral responses to policies and scientific recommendations. The project also examines the roles of factors such as the severity of the pandemic, socio-economic condition, and existing value systems in these changes. The research will advance scientific understanding of basic human values, how people respond to science communications, and how best to design such communications to achieve important societal goals.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.