05/07/2024
The Covid-19 pandemic has imposed a change in social behavior within various countries, where national governments have undertaken strategies to contain the virus that are sometimes very different from each other.
A study by the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of the National Research Council of Rome (Cnr-Istc), carried out in collaboration with the Collegio Carlo Alberto of Turin and other national and international organisations, analyzed the behaviors of a sample of over 30,000 people in 43 countries, comparing the data relating to the pre-pandemic situation with those of the first phase of the infection (March-June 2020). The results are published in Nature Communications: what emerges is confirmation of the sociological theory according to which, in situations of environmental stress – such as the pandemic scenario – social norms tend to be more restrictive.
“The study aimed to verify whether there was a change in attitude and behavior when we found ourselves facing a global health emergency. What emerged highlighted how the tightening, in a complex context determined by the spread of the virus in the first months of the infection, concerned almost exclusively the rules related to the specific risk, such as those relating to hand hygiene. This most likely happened because these rules were perceived as necessary to counter the spread of the virus. As regards the other types of rules, in the initial phase of the pandemic, they remained quite stable”, explains Giulia Andrighetto, Cnr-Istc researcher and author of the research.
The research was carried out through a collaboration between more than 40 institutions, including Stanford University (USA), Trinity College (Ireland), Ashoka University (India), Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, the University of Osaka Metropolitan (Japan), Guangzhou University (China), the University of Nigeria, and the University of Melbourne (Australia).
For information:
Giulia Andrighetto
Cnr-Istc
[email protected]
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