Cucchiarini Veronica, Caravona Laura, Macchi Laura, Perlino Federico L, Viale Riccardo
Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
Front Psychol. 2021 Mar 10;12:617315. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.617315. eCollection 2021.
This study aims at identifying the tools necessary for COVID-19 health emergency management, with particular reference to the period following the first lockdown, a crucial phase in which it was important to favor the maintenance of protective behaviors. It also aims at identifying the messages and sources that were most effective in managing communication correctly in such a crucial phase that is likely characterized by a fall in perceived health risk (due to the flattening of the epidemic curve) and a simultaneous rise in perceived economic and social risks (due to the enduring calamity). Knowing what source will be most effective to convey a specific message is fundamental in enabling individuals to focus on and comply with the rules. At the same time, it is necessary to understand how the message should be presented, and the relationships between messages, sources and targets. To meet these goals, data were collected through a self-administered online questionnaire submitted to a sample of undergraduate students from a University in Lombardy-the region most affected by the pandemic in the first wave- (Study 1), and to a national sample composed of Italian citizens (Study 2). Through our first manipulation which explored the effectiveness of social norms in relation to different sources, we found that, in the national sample, the injunctive norm conveyed by the government was the most effective in promoting behavioral intentions. By contrast, among the students, results showed that for the critical group with a lower risk perception (less inclined to adopt prevention behavior) descriptive norms, which implicitly convey the risk perception of peers, were as effective as the government injunctive norm. Our second manipulation, identical in Study 1 and 2, compared four types of communication (emotional, exponential growth, both of them, or neutral). The neutral condition was the most memorable, but no condition was more effective than the others. Across all message types there was a high intention to adopt protective behaviors. The results indicate possible applicative implications of the adopted communicative tools.
本研究旨在确定新冠疫情卫生应急管理所需的工具，尤其涉及首次封锁后的时期，这是一个关键阶段，在此阶段促进保持防护行为非常重要。研究还旨在确定在这一关键阶段正确管理沟通方面最有效的信息和来源，这一阶段可能的特点是感知到的健康风险下降（由于疫情曲线趋于平缓），同时感知到的经济和社会风险上升（由于灾难持续）。了解传达特定信息最有效的来源对于使个人能够专注并遵守规则至关重要。同时，有必要了解信息应如何呈现，以及信息、来源和目标之间的关系。为实现这些目标，通过向来自伦巴第地区一所大学的本科生样本（该地区在第一波疫情中受影响最严重）发放自填式在线问卷收集数据（研究1），并向由意大利公民组成的全国样本发放问卷（研究2）。通过我们的首次操作，探究了不同来源的社会规范的有效性，我们发现，在全国样本中，政府传达的指令性规范在促进行为意图方面最有效。相比之下，在学生中，结果表明，对于风险感知较低（不太倾向于采取预防行为）的关键群体，隐含传达同龄人风险感知的描述性规范与政府指令性规范一样有效。我们的第二次操作在研究1和研究2中相同，比较了四种类型的沟通方式（情感型、指数增长型、两者兼具型或中性型）。中性条件最令人难忘，但没有一种条件比其他条件更有效。在所有信息类型中，采取保护行为的意愿都很高。结果表明了所采用的沟通工具可能的应用意义。
