Abstract
The present investigation examined the factors that were related to U.S. residents’ support for social distancing measures (i.e., stay-at-home) that can help prevent COVID-19 infections and save lives. Relying on a survey of 387 U.S.-based participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), conducted in May 2020, the results revealed that perceived susceptibility and collectivist cultural values predicted their support for social distancing, both directly and indirectly. The total effect sizes were moderate and strong, respectively. In addition, instrumental attitudes were a stronger predictor of the participants’ support for social distancing than experiential attitudes and perceived behavioral control. The results contribute to the understanding of how risk perceptions, collectivist values, and various attitudes are related to an important preventive behavior (i.e., social distancing) during a pandemic. It should be acknowledged that the concept of social distancing evolved throughout the pandemic in the United States.
Highlights
COVID-19, a disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus, was initially identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China
Are risk perceptions and collectivist values still related to preventive behaviors when other variables are considered and controlled for? Are the relationships between the two variables and public support for preventive behaviors direct or mediated by other variables? Guided by an extended version of the theory of planned behavior (TPB; Ajzen, 1991; Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010), the present research aims to examine the factors that contribute to U.S residents’ support for the stay-at-home mandate and the associated practice of social distancing
Satisfactory fit indexes are as follows (Kline, 2016): The upper bound of the 90% CI of root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) should be less than .08, comparative fit index
Summary
COVID-19, a disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus, was initially identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The literature on health behavior (e.g., Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010; Rosenstock, 1974) has shown that a multitude of variables (e.g., attitudes toward a health behavior and subjective norms), in addition to risk perceptions and collectivist values, determine one’s support for and practice of preventive behaviors (e.g., social distancing). The TPB (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010) further states that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control are predicted by their respective beliefs, which in turn are predicted or influenced by distal variables including risk perceptions, personality variables, socio-economic status, or media campaigns. Building on the TPB with additional theorizing on attitudes, risk perceptions, and collectivist cultural values, a working model is proposed and explained below (Figure 1)
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