UConn Researcher Earns National Grant to Explore Changing Attitudes Toward Pandemic Response

A University of Connecticut researcher has launched a study to examine how behavior and social attitudes change, and what factors influence those changes, when people in the United States are faced with the threat of widespread disease.

According to published reports, Congress gave the National Science Foundation (NSF) $75 million to spend on research that will help “prevent, prepare for, and respond” to the novel coronavirus.  The money is a small slice of the $2 trillion stimulus package crafted by legislators to help the country deal with—and ultimately recover from—the pandemic.

The UConn study is a beneficiary - backed by a National Science Foundation (NSF) RAPID grant, with $182,574 obligated to date, which will support the year-long examination.

The central question:  what factors have motivated some individuals to follow the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control as closely as possible, while others ignore the recommendations completely – and what can we learn from the experience of COVID-19 that can help improve strategies that promote preventative health behaviors?

“We saw this as an opportunity to really think about whether we can identify individual factors – personality factors – that would predict engagement in preventative health behaviors,” Natalie J. Shook, a social psychologist, an associate professor in the UConn School of Nursing, and the principal investigator on this new study, told UConn Today. “From there, for future pandemics or future viral threats, are there different strategies or interventions that we could develop to facilitate a stronger response and, hopefully, prevent spread of infectious diseases faster?”

The award was announced by NSF on March 23, with a start date of April 1. The project abstract explains that “this project identifies psychosocial factors associated with preventative behavior change, thereby highlighting who may be at greater risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19 and future infectious diseases. The research will inform interventions designed to increase preventative health behaviors that reduce pathogen transmission.”  It is scheduled to conclude on March 31, 2021.

The project is also designed to “shed light on the long-term consequences of such social changes for policy, international relations, and individual decision making.”

Shook has reportedly recruited approximately 1,000 survey respondents that will be asked to provide answers to a 15-minute questionnaire numerous times over the next 12 months. The online surveys are designed to assess preventative behaviors, like washing hands; social attitudes, including prejudices, worldview, and social beliefs; and individual difference variables, like their knowledge and concern about COVID-19, and an assessment of their mood and health.

Data will be collected throughout the pandemic, decreasing in frequency as the threat subsides, according to the project abstract submitted to NSF. “Online surveys will assess preventative behaviors (e.g., handwashing, social distancing), social attitudes (prejudice, dangerous worldview, social beliefs), and individual difference variables.”

As the survey proceeds, national statistics “regarding COVID-19 prevalence in each survey respondent’s locale will also be collected to determine whether changes in social attitudes and behavior parallel changes in COVID-19 threat.”

In recent years, Shook has looked at different psychological mechanisms that might serve a function in infectious disease avoidance, such as the emotion of disgust, germ aversion, and contamination fear  - which may all work to shape social attitudes, she told UConn Today.  Her research interests include social psychology, mindfulness, behavior and wellbeing and health disparities, according to a profile on the university’s website.  She joined UConn’s faculty in 2020, and previously taught at West Virginia University, Virginia Commonwealth University and Ohio State University. 

“Right now, given how rapid the coronavirus situation is changing, and how quickly numbers are increasing with infections and confirmed cases – and the ease of disseminating information through social media – people are changing their attitudes and behaviors, so the opportunity is here to really identify the characteristics associated with engaging in these preventative behaviors,” Shook explained.

Participants will reportedly be required to submit their postal code, which will allow Shook and her research team to overlay regional COVID-19 rates as well as potential pathogen threats with the results of the survey responses.

“There’s so much that we don’t necessarily know yet about COVID-19,” says Shook. “Will people even, over the course of the year, get back to where they started, or will we see new habits being created and maintained even after the threat of COVID-19 has been quashed?”

Shook has already received the first round of survey responses from the study, and is already beginning to analyze the data. Her goal, she told UConn Today, is to try to release findings and share data from the study quickly, while COVID-19 is still an ongoing threat, in hopes that the results can assist public health officials, policymakers, other researchers, and the general public with understanding the preventative health response.