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Pandemic politics�Covid-19 health behaviors in group contexts

Total time: 15 minutes

Lesson introduction: Many of us are experiencing “pandemic fatigue” after a year and a half of dealing with COVID-19. Here at OU, I’ve been hearing from students, faculty, and employees who are frustrated and confused about the changing policies, whether that’s because they believe not enough is being done to protect their health or they see Covid policies as infringing on their personal liberties.

Whatever your perspective, understanding the social and behavioral responses to the pandemic is important for making sense out of what is currently happening both at this university and in society more broadly. As such, I am part of a group of educators who have committed to teaching about the pandemic. Although not part of the original plan for this course, today we’re going to spend part of class focused on understanding the social and behavioral responses to COVID-19, specifically masking and vaccination behavior.

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Learning �outcomes:

Explain how the pandemic presents a collective action problem
Identify the social and cultural factors that shape COVID-19 health behaviors
Describe how group context matters for COVID-19 health behaviors

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Collective action problems

The pandemic provides an example of a collective action problem:

Individuals are asked to sacrifice for a collective benefit
Freeriding and non-compliance may be “rational” for individuals but undermine the desired outcome
Efforts to produce a collective good fail and everyone ends up worse off

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Scientists have learned a lot about how the SARS-Cov-2 virus spreads, its impacts on the human body, and how to better treat the disease. Building on past scientific knowledge, multiple vaccines were rapidly developed that boosts the body’s ability to fight the virus.

Yet despite widespread vaccine availability and other interventions that reduce viral spread, the US continues to struggle with high rates of community transmission and hospitalizations. What’s going on?

One way that scholars understand this situation is as a collective action problem. Collective action problems refer to problems where the solution requires individuals to sacrifice for the collective benefit. In these situations, “free-riding” and other issues of non-compliance may be “rational” for individuals acting in their own self-interest. But lack of cooperation ultimately undermines the desired outcome and everyone ends up worse off.

The cartoon provides one example of a collective action problem. If more people used public transportation, traffic problems would be alleviated, providing a collective good. Yet individual drivers have incentives to continue relying on private modes of transportation, whether it's out of convenience or other reasons of self-interest.

[Question for students] Can anyone think of other examples of collective action problems?

Source:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/collective-action-problem-1917157

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Example:�Vaccine efficacy and collective behavior

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Most of the public health practices recommended to reduce the spread of COVID-19—including social distancing, masking, and vaccines—present collective action problems because they’re only effective if most people engage in the behavior (cooperate for the common good).

[Call for volunteer to explain how the collective action problem applies to vaccines, as illustrated by the images]

The goal of reaching “herd immunity,” for example, shows how vaccine effectiveness relies on a large numbers of people acting collectively. While vaccines do confer protection to individuals, they’re greater power comes from preventing the virus from spreading once a critical threshold of people participate. “Free-riders” and others who either cannot or will not get vaccinated also benefit from herd immunity (the blue individuals in the second image). But when there’s too many free-riders or shirkers, herd immunity is never reached or pockets of disease develop.

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ASK YOURSELF

What factors go into people’s decision to participate in COVID-19 health behaviors?

Why do we see high rates of masking/vaccinating among some groups but not others?

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Social and cultural

determinants of health behavior

Values

Does the behavior align with what you see as good, right, or ethical?

Norms

What are the accepted or standard behaviors and attitudes in your community?

Social identity

What social groups do you belong to? How does group identity influence your values, norms, knowledge, etc.?

Perceived risk

What is the level of perceived threat from the virus?

Knowledge/beliefs

What is your level of knowledge about the virus? What (dis)information do you believe?

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Institutional trust

How well do you trust governance institutions (e.g., CDC, local government, university)

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Application

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How can these concepts help us to explain group differences in masking behavior?

Values
Norms
Knowledge/beliefs
Perceived risk
Social identity
Institutional trust

Graph: Face mask usage by demographic, How often Americans use face masks in public, June-July 2020. Source: Statista

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Group context and social control

Values, norms, knowledge, and beliefs all develop in group contexts where conformity is enforced through both formal and informal social control.

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Formal social control

Formal rules and laws that dictate appropriate behavior and sanctions violators

Informal social control

How groups and individuals enforce conformity to informal social norms

Nobody lives or learn in isolation. Chances are, your attitudes and behaviors toward COVID-19 are similar to others in your social network. The amount of information out there is simply too much for any one person to process on their own. As such, we look to others who we trust and respect to a inform our attitudes and actions, especially in situations of high uncertainty such as the current pandemic.

We also need to recognize that going against group norms has consequences. The concept of social control refers to how actors or society seeks to enforce conformity to rules, laws, and norms, or otherwise shape the behavior of others. We’ve seen a lot of conflict over formal social control mechanisms related to Covid, such as lock downs, mask mandates, and vaccine requirements.

But informal social control from our peers, friends, and families is also important for thinking about covid related health behaviors. Informal social control can come in the form of either positive reinforcement for conforming to unwritten rules and norms -- for example, respect and compliments, public recognition, or social exclusion. Or it can be penalties for violating norms, such as insults, ridicule, gossip, and social exclusion.

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Examples:�COVID-19 & social control

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Putting on a mask to go in public may seem like a simple enough behavior. But because masking has become a salient and visible marker of group identity, wearing a mask transgresses social norms for some groups. For other groups, NOT wearing a mask violates norms and can lead to backlash.

Here are just a few headlines that demonstrate the power of informal social norms. In Houston, people threatened to call ICE on the staff of a restaurant that was enforcing masking. Last year, a man was killed in a masking dispute. People have also been getting vaccinated in secret to avoid backlash. You all likely have your own examples of friends or family being verbally attacked or confronted over their decision about masking and vaccinating.

The main takeaway here is that overcoming these collective action problems requires paying attention to how these social norms develop and are enforced within group contexts.

Sources:

CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/29/health/vaccines-in-secret-missouri/index.html
BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52540266
Texas Tribune: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/07/texas-businesses-masks-threats/

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Resources �and references

BBC (2020). US family ‘murdered shop guard for enforcing mask policy’
Carmichael, J (2012). Social control. Oxford Bibliographies.
CNN (2021). Some people in Missouri are getting vaccinated in secret to avoid backlash from loved ones, doctor says.
Dowding, K (n.d.). Collective action problem. Britannica.
Harrington, B (2021). The anti-vaccine con job is becoming untenable. The Atlantic.
Harrington, B (2021). How sociologists can battle Covid denialism. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Palmer, CL & Peterson, RD (2020). Toxic Mask-ulinity: The Link between Masculine Toughness and Affective Reactions to Mask Wearing in the COVID-19 Era. Politics & Gender, 16(4), 1044-1051.
Moya et al. (2020). Dynamics of behavior change in the COVID world. American Journal of Human Biology.
Statista. (2020). Face mask usage by demographic.
Texas Tribune (2021). A Mexican restaurant in Houston is keeping its mask rule. People threatened to call ICE on the staff.

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