COVID-19 and norm stability

DATA COLLECTION
2019-2020

NO. OF SOCIETIES
55

CONTINENTS
6

RESPONDENDS
30,411

COVID-19 and norm stability

In the spring of 2020, COVID-19 hit the world and led to behavioral change everywhere: face-masks became common, restaurant dinners with friends disappeared, and hand-washing got an upswing. But did the pandemic also change the norms that guide behavior?

The answer is surprisingly stable: hand-washing norms strengthened significantly, but most other social norms showed no meaningful change, and the likelihood of norm violations getting punished actually dipped slightly. Cultures, it seems, are resilient. A crisis rewrites the rulebook only where it absolutely has to.

Publications and media

Andrighetto, G., Szekely, A., Guido, A., Gelfand, M., . . . Eriksson, K. (2024). Changes in social norms during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic across 43 countries. Nature Communications, 15(1), 1436. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-44999-5

Pasin, G. L., Szekely, A., Eriksson, K., Guido, A., Di Sorrentino, E. P., & Andrighetto, G. (2024). Evidence from 43 countries that disease leaves cultures unchanged in the short-term. Scientific Reports, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-33155-6