Not fear, but goal importance and others' behavior makes one favour COVID-19 measures: Study

Researchers have found that it is not fear but understating the importance of the end goal as well as the way people perceive the behaviour of other people are what makes individuals and societies more or less willing to drastically change their lifestyle and support government-imposed measures to mitigate spread of Covid-19.

Psychologists at the University of Zurich Charlotte Kukowski, Katharina Bernecker and Veronika Brandstatter took a different perspective to study the impact on the impact of people's perception of others' behaviour when it comes to the public good, as well as people's own self-control in sticking to behaviour guidelines.

Earlier research has mostly looked into factors such as fear, perceived risk, age and political views.

By using data from the United Kingdom and Switzerland, the researchers concluded that, indeed, valuing fair contribution to the public good and the ability to practice self-control make people more likely to undertake health-protective behaviour, though the effects for self-control are not entirely consistent across the countries the authors sampled.

Further, people who are more concerned with the cooperation of their fellow citizens and expect them to do their own part are more supportive of government regulations, possibly as a means of ensuring that others comply. However, the authors stress that future studies need to test this possible link.

The study has been published in the peer-reviewed, open-access scientific journal Social Psychological Bulletin.

Successfully overcoming conflicting desires and needs, such as taking public transportation, meeting with friends, and participating in large gatherings, for the benefit of society means that people must practice self-control. People will only be willing to control their desires and needs, however, if they value the higher goal, that is, managing the pandemic, even though their own health-protective behaviour might not affect them directly.

In this sense, self-control in the service of a societal goal is quite different from self-control for a personal goal, such as sticking to a healthy diet or meeting career goals.: While exercising and career achievements are largely private concerns, we all depend on each other's cooperation when it comes to a societal goal like managing the COVID-19 pandemic.

Therefore, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, higher goal importance and perception of others' behaviour are key factors in practising health-protective behaviour.

"(...) we would like to emphasise that the effects of self-control and cooperation emerged above and beyond the effects of variables such as personal cost of engaging in health-protective behaviours, perceived risk and anxiety, and political orientation.

If future work replicates these findings, one might cautiously conclude that, in a time of crisis, people - including decision-makers - are indeed able to "rise above themselves" and lay aside political differences and personal costs for collective goal attainment," say the researchers.

The authors note that in collective actions, it is essential that one sees others put in the same effort.

In conclusion, the scientists note that, in order to improve public efforts in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as other collective goals, including climate change mitigation, it is essential that we identify the factors contributing to successful self-control and cooperation in the service of higher, society-level goals.

( With inputs from ANI )