Drivers of public responses toward Coronavirus outbreak and implications of social dynamics (COSD)

As humanity is facing for the first time in contemporary history, a pandemic with such impactful and unpredictable effects, understanding the drivers of public responses toward the Coronavirus outbreak is essential. Emerging research in the areas of the public's reactions toward similar epidemics (the Ebola crisis and the SARS epidemic) has been piecemeal. This project aim to apply a more holistic approach to investigate public responses toward the pandemic and actions taken by authorities, individuals and businesses. We develop and test an integrative social psychological theory that combines specific emotional, cognitive, evaluative, and individual difference variables that undergird the public's reactions to social countermeasures taken to the outbreak of coronavirus. The project is organized in two working packages. WP1 studies public responses toward the outbreak of coronavirus and social countermeasures broadly through a longitudinal survey in Norway, which will exam naturally occurring relationships amongst psychological reactions over time to ascertain the direction of causality. WP2 examines the socio-psychological mechanism underlying public responses toward countermeasures taken by authorities, individuals, and business. Field experiment with adult respondents will be conducted across 4 countries (Norway, Italy, China and USA), which will provide stronger conclusions of causality. This project will contribute to knowledge advancement of the health and social psychology fields by providing an overarching framework to describe public responses toward present and future pandemics. The project output will also have a societal and policy impact by contributing to the management of the crisis both from short- and long-term standpoint. Policymakers can not only derive relevant feedback from predicting public reactions for their application of specific policies, but also anticipate and adjust to the fluctuations in public reactions to real societal changes.