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National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic

Citation: Van Bavel, Jay J. and Cichocka, Aleksandra and Capraro, Valerio and Sjåstad, Hallgeir and Nezlek, John B. and Pavlović, Tomislav and Alfano, Mark and Gelfand, Michele J. and Azevedo, Flavio and Birtel, Michèle D. and Cislak, Aleksandra and Lockwood, Patricia L. and Ross, Robert Malcolm and Abts, Koen and Agadullina, Elena and Aruta, John Jamir Benzon and Besharati, Sahba Nomvula and Bor, Alexander and Choma, Becky L. and Crabtree, Charles David and Cunningham, William A. and De, Koustav and Ejaz, Waqas and Elbaek, Christian T. and Findor, Andrej and Flichtentrei, Daniel and Franc, Renata and Gjoneska, Biljana and Gruber, June and Gualda, Estrella and Horiuchi, Yusaku and Huynh, Toan Luu Duc and Ibanez, Agustin and Imran, Mostak Ahamed and Israelashvili, Jacob and Jasko, Katarzyna and Kantorowicz, Jaroslaw and Kantorowicz-Reznichenko, Elena and Krouwel, André and Laakasuo, Michael and Lamm, Claus and Leygue, Caroline and Lin, Ming-Jen and Mansoor, Mohammad Sabbir and Marie, Antoine and Mayiwar, Lewend and Mazepus, Honorata and McHugh, Cillian and Minda, John Paul and Mitkidis, Panagiotis and Olsson, Andreas and Otterbring, Tobias and Packer, Dominic J. and Perry, Anat and Petersen, Michael Bang and Puthillam, Arathy and Riaño-Moreno, Julián C. and Rothmund, Tobias and Santamaría-García, Hernando and Schmid, Petra C. and Stoyanov, Drozdstoy and Tewari, Shruti and Todosijević, Bojan and Tsakiris, Manos and Tung, Hans H. and Umbreș, Radu G. and Vanags, Edmunds and Vlasceanu, Madalina and Vonasch, Andrew and Yucel, Meltem and Zhang, Yucheng and Abad, Mohcine and Adler, Eli and Akrawi, Narin and Mdarhri, Hamza Alaoui and Amara, Hanane and Amodio, David M. and Antazo, Benedict G. and Apps, Matthew and Ay, F. Ceren and Ba, Mouhamadou Hady and Barbosa, Sergio and Bastian, Brock and Berg, Anton and Bernal-Zárate, Maria P. and Bernstein, Michael and Białek, Michał and Bilancini, Ennio and Bogatyreva, Natalia and Boncinelli, Leonardo and Booth, Jonathan E. and Borau, Sylvie and Buchel, Ondrej and Cameron, C. Daryl and Carvalho, Chrissie F. and Celadin, Tatiana and Cerami, Chiara and Chalise, Hom Nath and Cheng, Xiaojun and Cian, Luca and Cockcroft, Kate and Conway, Jane and Córdoba-Delgado, Mateo Andres and Crespi, Chiara and Crouzevialle, Marie and Cutler, Jo and Cypryańska, Marzena and Dabrowska, Justyna and Daniels, Michael A. and Davis, Victoria H. and Dayley, Pamala N. and Delouvee, Sylvain and Denkovski, Ognjan and Dezecache, Guillaume and Dhaliwal, Nathan A. and Diato, Alelie B. and Di Paolo, Roberto and Drosinou, Marianna and Dulleck, Uwe and Ekmanis, Jānis and Ertan, Arhan S. and Etienne, Tom W. and Farhana, Hapsa Hossain and Farkhari, Fahima and Farmer, Harry and Fenwick, Ali and Fidanovski, Kristijan and Flew, Terry and Fraser, Shona and Frempong, Raymond Boadi and Fugelsang, Jonathan A. and Gale, Jessica and Garcia-Navarro, E. Begoña and Garladinne, Prasad and Ghajjou, Oussama and Gkinopoulos, Theofilos and Gray, Kurt and Griffin, Siobhán M. and Gronfeldt, Bjarki and Gümren, Mert and Gurung, Ranju Lama and Halperin, Eran and Harris, Elizabeth and Herzon, Volo and Hruška, Matej and Huang, Guanxiong and Hudecek, Matthias F. C. and Isler, Ozan and Jangard, Simon and Jørgensen, Frederik J. and Kachanoff, Frank and Kahn, John and Dangol, Apsara Katuwal and Keudel, Oleksandra and Koppel, Lina and Koverola, Mika and Kubin, Emily and Kunnari, Anton and Kutiyski, Yordan and Laguna, Oscar and Leota, Josh and Lermer, Eva and Levy, Jonathan and Levy, Neil and Li, Chunyun and Long, Elizabeth U. and Longoni, Chiara and Maglić, Marina and McCashin, Darragh and Metcalf, Alexander L. and Mikloušić, Igor and El Mimouni, Soulaimane and Miura, Asako and Molina-Paredes, Juliana and Monroy-Fonseca, César and Morales-Marente, Elena and Moreau, David and Muda, Rafał and Myer, Annalisa and Nash, Kyle and Nesh-Nash, Tarik and Nitschke, Jonas P. and Nurse, Matthew S. and Ohtsubo, Yohsuke and Oldemburgo de Mello, Victoria and O’Madagain, Cathal and Onderco, Michal and Palacios-Galvez, M. Soledad and Palomäki, Jussi and Pan, Yafeng and Papp, Zsófia and Pärnamets, Philip and Paruzel-Czachura, Mariola and Pavlović, Zoran and Payán-Gómez, César and Perander, Silva and Pitman, Michael Mark and Prasad, Rajib and Pyrkosz-Pacyna, Joanna and Rathje, Steve and Raza, Ali and Rêgo, Gabriel G. and Rhee, Kasey and Robertson, Claire E. and Rodríguez-Pascual, Iván and Saikkonen, Teemu and Salvador-Ginez, Octavio and Sampaio, Waldir M. and Santi, Gaia C. and Santiago-Tovar, Natalia and Savage, David and Scheffer, Julian A. and Schönegger, Philipp and Schultner, David T. and Schutte, Enid M. and Scott, Andy and Sharma, Madhavi and Sharma, Pujan and Skali, Ahmed and Stadelmann, David and Stafford, Clara Alexandra and Stanojević, Dragan and Stefaniak, Anna and Sternisko, Anni and Stoica, Agustin and Stoyanova, Kristina K. and Strickland, Brent and Sundvall, Jukka and Thomas, Jeffrey P. and Tinghög, Gustav and Torgler, Benno and Traast, Iris J. and Tucciarelli, Raffaele and Tyrala, Michael and Ungson, Nick D. and Uysal, Mete S. and Van Lange, Paul A. M. and van Prooijen, Jan-Willem and van Rooy, Dirk and Västfjäll, Daniel and Verkoeijen, Peter and Vieira, Joana B. and von Sikorski, Christian and Walker, Alexander Cameron and Watermeyer, Jennifer and Wetter, Erik and Whillans, Ashley and Willardt, Robin and Wohl, Michael J. A. and Wójcik, Adrian Dominik and Wu, Kaidi and Yamada, Yuki and Yilmaz, Onurcan and Yogeeswaran, Kumar and Ziemer, Carolin-Theresa and Zwaan, Rolf A. and Boggio, Paulo S. (2022) National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic. Nature Communications, 13 (1). ISSN 2041-1723

Van Bavel et al.pdf

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Changing collective behaviour and supporting non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important component in mitigating virus transmission during a pandemic. In a large international collaboration (Study 1, N = 49,968 across 67 countries), we investigated self-reported factors associated with public health behaviours (e.g., spatial distancing and stricter hygiene) and endorsed public policy interventions (e.g., closing bars and restaurants) during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic (April-May 2020). Respondents who reported identifying more strongly with their nation consistently reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies. Results were similar for representative and non-representative national samples. Study 2 (N = 42 countries) conceptually replicated the central finding using aggregate indices of national identity (obtained using the World Values Survey) and a measure of actual behaviour change during the pandemic (obtained from Google mobility reports). Higher levels of national identification prior to the pandemic predicted lower mobility during the early stage of the pandemic (r = −0.40). We discuss the potential implications of links between national identity, leadership, and public health for managing COVID-19 and future pandemics.

Creators: Van Bavel, Jay J. (0000-0002-2520-0442) and Cichocka, Aleksandra (0000-0003-1703-1586) and Capraro, Valerio and Sjåstad, Hallgeir (0000-0002-8730-1038) and Nezlek, John B. (0000-0003-4963-3637) and Pavlović, Tomislav (0000-0002-4470-3715) and Alfano, Mark (0000-0001-5879-8033) and Gelfand, Michele J. and Azevedo, Flavio (0000-0001-9000-8513) and Birtel, Michèle D. and Cislak, Aleksandra (0000-0002-9880-6947) and Lockwood, Patricia L. (0000-0001-7195-9559) and Ross, Robert Malcolm (0000-0001-8711-1675) and Abts, Koen (0000-0001-8546-8347) and Agadullina, Elena (0000-0002-1505-1412) and Aruta, John Jamir Benzon (0000-0003-4155-1063) and Besharati, Sahba Nomvula (0000-0003-2836-7982) and Bor, Alexander (0000-0002-2624-9221) and Choma, Becky L. and Crabtree, Charles David (0000-0001-5144-8671) and Cunningham, William A. and De, Koustav (0000-0001-9562-0672) and Ejaz, Waqas (0000-0002-2492-4115) and Elbaek, Christian T. (0000-0002-7039-4565) and Findor, Andrej (0000-0002-5896-6989) and Flichtentrei, Daniel and Franc, Renata (0000-0002-1909-2393) and Gjoneska, Biljana (0000-0003-1200-6672) and Gruber, June and Gualda, Estrella and Horiuchi, Yusaku and Huynh, Toan Luu Duc (0000-0002-1486-127X) and Ibanez, Agustin (0000-0001-6758-5101) and Imran, Mostak Ahamed (0000-0002-5101-3149) and Israelashvili, Jacob and Jasko, Katarzyna and Kantorowicz, Jaroslaw (0000-0002-1186-5427) and Kantorowicz-Reznichenko, Elena and Krouwel, André (0000-0003-0952-6028) and Laakasuo, Michael (0000-0003-2826-6073) and Lamm, Claus (0000-0002-5422-0653) and Leygue, Caroline (0000-0002-0355-1030) and Lin, Ming-Jen (0000-0002-7174-2226) and Mansoor, Mohammad Sabbir (0000-0002-6541-3506) and Marie, Antoine (0000-0002-7958-0153) and Mayiwar, Lewend and Mazepus, Honorata and McHugh, Cillian (0000-0002-9701-3232) and Minda, John Paul (0000-0002-4081-010X) and Mitkidis, Panagiotis (0000-0002-9495-7369) and Olsson, Andreas (0000-0001-5272-7744) and Otterbring, Tobias (0000-0002-0283-8777) and Packer, Dominic J. and Perry, Anat (0000-0003-2329-856X) and Petersen, Michael Bang (0000-0002-6782-5635) and Puthillam, Arathy and Riaño-Moreno, Julián C. (0000-0003-4182-0550) and Rothmund, Tobias (0000-0003-2979-5129) and Santamaría-García, Hernando and Schmid, Petra C. (0000-0002-9990-5445) and Stoyanov, Drozdstoy (0000-0002-9975-3680) and Tewari, Shruti and Todosijević, Bojan (0000-0002-6116-993X) and Tsakiris, Manos (0000-0001-7753-7576) and Tung, Hans H. (0000-0001-5332-7582) and Umbreș, Radu G. and Vanags, Edmunds (0000-0003-1932-936X) and Vlasceanu, Madalina (0000-0003-2138-1968) and Vonasch, Andrew and Yucel, Meltem (0000-0002-7274-5971) and Zhang, Yucheng (0000-0001-9435-6734) and Abad, Mohcine (0000-0002-4964-5411) and Adler, Eli and Akrawi, Narin and Mdarhri, Hamza Alaoui (0000-0001-9831-6561) and Amara, Hanane (0000-0003-0732-2320) and Amodio, David M. and Antazo, Benedict G. (0000-0001-9993-8960) and Apps, Matthew (0000-0001-5793-2202) and Ay, F. Ceren and Ba, Mouhamadou Hady and Barbosa, Sergio (0000-0003-1989-158X) and Bastian, Brock (0000-0003-4619-3322) and Berg, Anton and Bernal-Zárate, Maria P. (0000-0001-8232-6220) and Bernstein, Michael and Białek, Michał (0000-0002-5062-5733) and Bilancini, Ennio and Bogatyreva, Natalia and Boncinelli, Leonardo (0000-0003-0626-5133) and Booth, Jonathan E. (0000-0002-8563-4613) and Borau, Sylvie (0000-0003-1564-0695) and Buchel, Ondrej (0000-0002-0139-5513) and Cameron, C. Daryl and Carvalho, Chrissie F. and Celadin, Tatiana and Cerami, Chiara and Chalise, Hom Nath (0000-0002-9301-6890) and Cheng, Xiaojun and Cian, Luca (0000-0002-8051-1366) and Cockcroft, Kate (0000-0002-6166-8050) and Conway, Jane (0000-0003-3883-349X) and Córdoba-Delgado, Mateo Andres (0000-0002-2264-7388) and Crespi, Chiara and Crouzevialle, Marie (0000-0002-5538-6030) and Cutler, Jo (0000-0003-1073-764X) and Cypryańska, Marzena and Dabrowska, Justyna (0000-0002-8821-7161) and Daniels, Michael A. and Davis, Victoria H. (0000-0002-7207-4629) and Dayley, Pamala N. (0000-0001-8955-9502) and Delouvee, Sylvain (0000-0002-4029-597X) and Denkovski, Ognjan and Dezecache, Guillaume and Dhaliwal, Nathan A. and Diato, Alelie B. and Di Paolo, Roberto (0000-0002-6081-6656) and Drosinou, Marianna and Dulleck, Uwe (0000-0002-0953-5963) and Ekmanis, Jānis (0000-0003-1781-1785) and Ertan, Arhan S. and Etienne, Tom W. (0000-0002-4299-6593) and Farhana, Hapsa Hossain and Farkhari, Fahima (0000-0002-8484-5128) and Farmer, Harry (0000-0002-3684-0605) and Fenwick, Ali (0000-0002-5412-9745) and Fidanovski, Kristijan and Flew, Terry (0000-0003-4485-9338) and Fraser, Shona and Frempong, Raymond Boadi (0000-0002-4603-5570) and Fugelsang, Jonathan A. and Gale, Jessica (0000-0001-5677-8629) and Garcia-Navarro, E. Begoña (0000-0001-6913-8882) and Garladinne, Prasad and Ghajjou, Oussama (0000-0002-2975-0265) and Gkinopoulos, Theofilos and Gray, Kurt and Griffin, Siobhán M. (0000-0002-3613-2844) and Gronfeldt, Bjarki and Gümren, Mert and Gurung, Ranju Lama and Halperin, Eran (0000-0002-3379-2935) and Harris, Elizabeth and Herzon, Volo (0000-0001-7781-1651) and Hruška, Matej and Huang, Guanxiong (0000-0002-8588-1454) and Hudecek, Matthias F. C. (0000-0002-7696-766X) and Isler, Ozan (0000-0002-4638-2230) and Jangard, Simon (0000-0002-7876-4161) and Jørgensen, Frederik J. (0000-0002-5461-912X) and Kachanoff, Frank and Kahn, John (0000-0002-0548-3123) and Dangol, Apsara Katuwal and Keudel, Oleksandra and Koppel, Lina (0000-0002-6302-0047) and Koverola, Mika (0000-0001-8227-6120) and Kubin, Emily and Kunnari, Anton and Kutiyski, Yordan and Laguna, Oscar and Leota, Josh (0000-0002-7714-4630) and Lermer, Eva (0000-0002-6600-9580) and Levy, Jonathan and Levy, Neil and Li, Chunyun and Long, Elizabeth U. and Longoni, Chiara and Maglić, Marina (0000-0002-6851-4601) and McCashin, Darragh and Metcalf, Alexander L. (0000-0001-9532-585X) and Mikloušić, Igor and El Mimouni, Soulaimane and Miura, Asako (0000-0002-7563-7503) and Molina-Paredes, Juliana and Monroy-Fonseca, César (0000-0003-4696-8159) and Morales-Marente, Elena (0000-0002-1227-9606) and Moreau, David (0000-0002-1957-1941) and Muda, Rafał and Myer, Annalisa and Nash, Kyle and Nesh-Nash, Tarik (0000-0002-5532-9095) and Nitschke, Jonas P. (0000-0002-3244-8585) and Nurse, Matthew S. (0000-0003-1787-5914) and Ohtsubo, Yohsuke and Oldemburgo de Mello, Victoria and O’Madagain, Cathal and Onderco, Michal and Palacios-Galvez, M. Soledad and Palomäki, Jussi (0000-0001-6063-0926) and Pan, Yafeng (0000-0002-5633-8313) and Papp, Zsófia and Pärnamets, Philip and Paruzel-Czachura, Mariola and Pavlović, Zoran (0000-0002-9231-5100) and Payán-Gómez, César (0000-0002-0633-1332) and Perander, Silva (0000-0001-6711-8079) and Pitman, Michael Mark (0000-0001-5532-5388) and Prasad, Rajib and Pyrkosz-Pacyna, Joanna (0000-0002-9112-8629) and Rathje, Steve and Raza, Ali (0000-0002-2438-6054) and Rêgo, Gabriel G. and Rhee, Kasey (0000-0002-8562-0801) and Robertson, Claire E. and Rodríguez-Pascual, Iván (0000-0002-5385-3643) and Saikkonen, Teemu (0000-0001-9619-3270) and Salvador-Ginez, Octavio and Sampaio, Waldir M. (0000-0002-6066-4314) and Santi, Gaia C. and Santiago-Tovar, Natalia and Savage, David and Scheffer, Julian A. and Schönegger, Philipp (0000-0001-9930-487X) and Schultner, David T. (0000-0003-2253-4065) and Schutte, Enid M. and Scott, Andy (0000-0002-3294-0078) and Sharma, Madhavi and Sharma, Pujan and Skali, Ahmed (0000-0002-4753-3280) and Stadelmann, David (0000-0002-1211-9936) and Stafford, Clara Alexandra (0000-0003-1716-7870) and Stanojević, Dragan (0000-0002-3667-2461) and Stefaniak, Anna (0000-0002-1706-7784) and Sternisko, Anni (0000-0002-2507-3076) and Stoica, Agustin (0000-0003-0585-1114) and Stoyanova, Kristina K. and Strickland, Brent and Sundvall, Jukka (0000-0003-4310-1162) and Thomas, Jeffrey P. and Tinghög, Gustav (0000-0002-8159-1249) and Torgler, Benno (0000-0002-9809-963X) and Traast, Iris J. and Tucciarelli, Raffaele (0000-0002-0342-308X) and Tyrala, Michael (0000-0001-5268-8319) and Ungson, Nick D. and Uysal, Mete S. and Van Lange, Paul A. M. (0000-0001-7774-6984) and van Prooijen, Jan-Willem (0000-0001-6236-0819) and van Rooy, Dirk and Västfjäll, Daniel (0000-0003-2873-4500) and Verkoeijen, Peter and Vieira, Joana B. and von Sikorski, Christian (0000-0002-3787-8277) and Walker, Alexander Cameron (0000-0003-1431-6770) and Watermeyer, Jennifer (0000-0001-7918-8832) and Wetter, Erik and Whillans, Ashley (0000-0002-1726-6978) and Willardt, Robin (0000-0002-2495-3450) and Wohl, Michael J. A. (0000-0001-6945-5562) and Wójcik, Adrian Dominik (0000-0002-7073-6019) and Wu, Kaidi (0000-0001-6881-7437) and Yamada, Yuki (0000-0003-1431-568X) and Yilmaz, Onurcan (0000-0002-6094-7162) and Yogeeswaran, Kumar and Ziemer, Carolin-Theresa (0000-0002-0794-7702) and Zwaan, Rolf A. and Boggio, Paulo S. and
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27668-9
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27668-9
Subjects: Politics
Keywords: national identity, COVID-19, collective behaviour
Dates:
  • 26 January 2022 (published)
  • 14 October 2021 (accepted)

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