ARE COMPLIANCE BEHAVIORS SOCIALLY "CONTAGIOUS" AMONG STUDENTS? A VALIDATION STUDY OF SOCIAL INFLUENCE WITH COVID-19 RECOMMENDATIONS AMONG STUDENTS AT LINKÖPING UNIVERSITY

Before a vaccine against Covid-19 (Sars-Cov-2) is available, the best way to protect yourself from becoming infected is to follow recommendations related to Covid-19. But people differ in terms of degree of agreement with these recommendations. Recent reports indicate that young adults (eg students) are unlikely to follow the recommendations and thus risk becoming infected themselves or others. We have already carried out a study aimed at predicting individual consent. Are there sociodemographic aspects? Psychological characteristics? While both are important, we have so far failed to study the most crucial aspect that affects individual consent - ie consent among individuals' contacts (friends, colleagues, etc.). Individuals observe their own behavior and adapt this to close contacts and peers through social influence, reinforcement and imitation that sets the standard for what are appropriate levels of consent. In other words, consent is probably also contagious and knowing if this is true and how these processes work can contribute to our ability to deal with current and future pandemics. The aim of our project is to investigate this issue with an in-depth longitudinal study of students at Linköping University. The new school year began with online classrooms and it is now the right time and unique opportunity to examine how these socially relevant individual behaviors are affected by peers and other relevant contacts. In other words, consent is probably also contagious and knowing if this is true and how these processes work can contribute to our ability to deal with current and future pandemics. The aim of our project is to investigate this issue with an in-depth longitudinal study of students at Linköping University. The new school year began with online classrooms and it is now the right time and unique opportunity to examine how these socially relevant individual behaviors are affected by peers and other relevant contacts. In other words, consent is probably also contagious and knowing if this is true and how these processes work can contribute to our ability to deal with current and future pandemics. The aim of our project is to investigate this issue with an in-depth longitudinal study of students at Linköping University. The new school year began with online classrooms and it is now the right time and unique opportunity to examine how these socially relevant individual behaviors are affected by peers and other relevant contacts.