- Home /
- Research /
- Academic Research /
- Using Social and Behavioral Science to Support COVID-19 Pandemic Response
Using Social and Behavioral Science to Support COVID-19 Pandemic Response
The social and behavioral sciences are essential to formulating an effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic; our paper offers some insights on how.
Citation
Van Bavel, Jay J., Katherine Baicker, Paulo S. Boggio, Valerio Capraro, Aleksandra Cichocka, Mina Cikara, Molly J. Crockett, et al. "Using Social and Behavioural Science to Support COVID-19 Pandemic Response.” Nature Human Behaviour 4, no. 1 (2020): 460-71. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0884-z
Date Posted
Apr 30, 2020
Authors
- Jay J. Van Bavel,
- Katherine Baicker,
- Paulo Boggio,
- Valerio Capraro,
- Aleksandra Cichocka,
- Mina Cikara,
- Molly J. Crockett,
- Alia Crum,
- Karen M. Douglas,
- James N. Druckman,
- John Drury,
- Oeindrila Dube,
- Naomi Ellemers,
- Eli J. Finkel,
- James H. Fowler,
- Michele Gelfand,
- Shihui Han,
- S. Alexander Haslam,
- Jolanda Jetten,
- Shinobu Kitayama,
- Dean Mobbs,
- Lucy Napper,
- Dominic Packer,
- Gordon Pennycook,
- Ellen Peters,
- Richard E. Petty,
- David G. Rand,
- Stephen D. Reicher,
- Simone Schnall,
- Azim Shariff,
- Linda Skitka,
- Sandra Susan Smith,
- Cass R. Sunstein,
- Nassim Tabri,
- Joshua A. Tucker,
- Sander van der Linden,
- Paul A. M. Van Lange,
- Kim A. Weeden,
- Michael J. A. Wohl,
- Jamil Zaki,
- Sean R. Zion,
- Robb Willer
Area of Study
Tags
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic represents a massive global health crisis. Because the crisis requires large-scale behaviour change and places significant psychological burdens on individuals, insights from the social and behavioural sciences can be used to help align human behaviour with the recommendations of epidemiologists and public health experts. Here we discuss evidence from a selection of research topics relevant to pandemics, including work on navigating threats, social and cultural influences on behaviour, science communication, moral decision-making, leadership, and stress and coping. In each section, we note the nature and quality of prior research, including uncertainty and unsettled issues. We identify several insights for effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic and highlight important gaps researchers should move quickly to fill in the coming weeks and months.
Background
The COVID-19 pandemic represents a massive global health crisis. Because the crisis requires large-scale behaviour change and places significant psychological burdens on individuals, insights from the social and behavioural sciences can be used to help align human behaviour with the recommendations of epidemiologists and public health experts. Here, we discuss evidence from a selection of research topics relevant to pandemics, including work on navigating threats, social and cultural influences on behaviour, science communication, moral decision-making, leadership, and stress and coping.
Study
We identify several insights for effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as using simultaneous and engaging technologies to maintain interpersonal connections and combating misinformation with co-partisanship and fact-checking. We also highlight important gaps researchers should move quickly to fill in the coming weeks and months.
Results
Our paper provides some insights from the past century of work on related issues in the social and behavioural sciences that might help public health officials mitigate the ongoing pandemic. Specifically, issues like threat perception, social context, science communication, aligning individual and collective interests, leadership, and stress and coping are discussed. Urgent action is needed to mitigate the potentially devastating effects of COVID-19 — the behavioural and social sciences can help best inform a plan to move forward.