ArticlePloS one2021
Let's (not) get together! The role of social norms on social distancing during COVID-19.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Trial
- Beyond social cues: the normative influence of social referents on COVID-19 vaccine compliance among Latino day laborers.Journal of behavioral medicine · 2026Article
- A norm about harvest division is maintained by a desire to follow tradition, not by social policing.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Unpacking Digital Dashboards' Influence on Preventive Health Behavior Among Young Adults.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Correcting Misperceptions about Support for Social Distancing to Combat COVID-19.Economic development and cultural change · 2024Article
- Closing the Gap: How Psychological Distance Influences Willingness to Engage in Risky COVID Behavior.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Risk, sanctions and norm change: the formation and decay of social distancing norms.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Correlates of COVID-19 Preventative Behaviors before and after Vaccination Availability.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- American Singles' Attitudes Toward Future Romantic/Sexual Partners' COVID-19 Vaccination Status: Evidence for both Vigilance and Indifference in a National Sample.Sexuality & culture · 2023Article
- The impact of threshold decision mechanisms of collective behavior on disease spread.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Linking Cultural Tightness, Components of Norm Activation and COVID-19 Preventive Behaviors among University Students: Evidence from Beijing, China.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Article
- Exploring the relationships between rule-governed behavior and adherence to guidelines aiming to reduce the spread of COVID-19.Journal of contextual behavioral science · 2022Article
- Facilitators and barriers to social distancing for young people during the COVID-19 pandemic.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Risk perceptions and COVID-19 protective behaviors: A two-wave longitudinal study of epidemic and post-epidemic periods.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2022Article
- Viral Anxiety Mediates the Influence of Intolerance of Uncertainty on Adherence to Physical Distancing Among Healthcare Workers in COVID-19 Pandemic.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Peers for the fearless: Social norms facilitate preventive behaviour when individuals perceive low COVID-19 health risks.PloS one · 2021Article
- Do you have COVID-19? How to increase the use of diagnostic and contact tracing apps.PloS one · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
While effective preventive measures against COVID-19 are now widely known, many individuals fail to adopt them. This article provides experimental evidence about one potentially important driver of compliance with social distancing: social norms. We asked each of 23,000 survey respondents in Mexico to predict how a fictional person would behave when faced with the choice about whether or not to attend a friend's birthday gathering. Every respondent was randomly assigned to one of four social norms conditions. Expecting that other people would attend the gathering and/or believing that other people approved of attending the gathering both increased the predicted probability that the fictional character would attend the gathering by 25%, in comparison with a scenario where other people were not expected to attend nor to approve of attending. Our results speak to the potential effects of communication campaigns and media coverage of compliance with, and normative views about, COVID-19 preventive measures. They also suggest that policies aimed at modifying social norms or making existing ones salient could impact compliance.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.