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National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic

  • Jay J. Van Bavel*
  • , Aleksandra Cichocka
  • , Valerio Capraro
  • , Hallgeir Sjåstad
  • , John B. Nezlek
  • , Tomislav Pavlović
  • , Mark Alfano
  • , Michele J. Gelfand
  • , Flavio Azevedo*
  • , Michèle D. Birtel
  • , Aleksandra Cislak
  • , Patricia L. Lockwood
  • , Robert Malcolm Ross
  • , Koen Abts
  • , Elena Agadullina
  • , John Jamir Benzon Aruta
  • , Sahba Nomvula Besharati
  • , Alexander Bor
  • , Becky L. Choma
  • , Charles David Crabtree
    • William A. Cunningham, Koustav De, Waqas Ejaz, Christian T. Elbaek, Andrej Findor, Daniel Flichtentrei, Renata Franc, Biljana Gjoneska, June Gruber, Estrella Gualda, Yusaku Horiuchi, Toan Luu Duc Huynh, Augustin Ibanez, Mostak Ahamed Imran, Jacob Israelashvili, Katarzyna Jasko, Jaroslaw Kantorowicz, Elena Kantorowicz-Reznichenko, André Krouwel, Michael Laakasuo, Claus Lamm, Caroline Leygue, Ming Jen Lin, Mohammad Sabbir Mansoor, Antoine Marie, Lewend Mayiwar, Honorata Mazepus, Cillian McHugh, John Paul Minda, Panagiotis Mitkidis, Andreas Olsson, Tobias Otterbring, Dominic J. Packer, Anat Perry, Michael Bang Petersen, Arathy Puthillam, Julián C. Riaño-Moreno, Tobias Rothmund, Hernando Santamaría-García, Petra C. Schmid, Drozdstoy Stoyanov, Shruti Tewari, Bojan Todosijević, Manos Tsakiris, Hans H. Tung, Radu G. Umbreș, Edmunds Vanags, Madalina Vlasceanu, Andrew Vonasch, Meltem Yucel, Yucheng Zhang, Mohcine Abad, Eli Adler, Narin Akrawi, Hamza Alaoui Mdarhri, Hanane Amara, David M. Amodio, Benedict G. Antazo, Matthew Apps, F. Ceren Ay, Mouhamadou Hady Ba, Sergio Barbosa, Brock Bastian, Anton Berg, Maria P. Bernal-Zárate, Michael Bernstein, Michał Białek, Ennio Bilancini, Natalia Bogatyreva, Leonardo Boncinelli, Jonathan E. Booth, Sylvie Borau, Ondrej Buchel, C. Daryl Cameron, Chrissie F. Carvalho, Tatiana Celadin, Chiara Cerami, Hom Nath Chalise, Xiaojun Cheng, Luca Cian, Kate Cockcroft, Jane Conway, Mateo Andres Córdoba-Delgado, Chiara Crespi, Marie Crouzevialle, Jo Cutler, Marzena Cypryańska, Justyna Dabrowska, Michael A. Daniels, Victoria H. Davis, Pamala N. Dayley, Sylvain Delouvee, Ognjan Denkovski, Guillaume Dezecache, Nathan A. Dhaliwal, Alelie B. Diato, Roberto Di Paolo, Marianna Drosinou, Uwe Dulleck, Jānis Ekmanis, Arhan S. Ertan, Tom W. Etienne, Hapsa Hossain Farhana, Fahima Farkhari, Harry Farmer, Ali Fenwick, Kristijan Fidanovski, Terry Flew, Shona Fraser, Raymond Boadi Frempong, Jonathan A. Fugelsang, Jessica Gale, E. Begoña Garcia-Navarro, Prasad Garladinne, Oussama Ghajjou, Theofilos Gkinopoulos, Kurt Gray, Siobhán M. Griffin, Bjarki Gronfeldt, Mert Gümren, Ranju Lama Gurung, Eran Halperin, Elizabeth Harris, Volo Herzon, Matej Hruška, Guanxiong Huang, Matthias F.C. Hudecek, Ozan Isler, Simon Jangard, Frederik J. Jørgensen, Frank Kachanoff, John Kahn, Apsara Katuwal Dangol, Oleksandra Keudel, Lina Koppel, Mika Koverola, Emily Kubin, Anton Kunnari, Yordan Kutiyski, Oscar Laguna, Josh Leota, Eva Lermer, Jonathan Levy, Neil Levy, Chunyun Li, Elizabeth U. Long, Chiara Longoni, Marina Maglić, Darragh McCashin, Alexander L. Metcalf, Igor Mikloušić, Soulaimane El Mimouni, Asako Miura, Juliana Molina-Paredes, César Monroy-Fonseca, Elena Morales-Marente, David Moreau, Rafał Muda, Annalisa Myer, Kyle Nash, Tarik Nesh-Nash, Jonas P. Nitschke, Matthew S. Nurse, Yohsuke Ohtsubo, Victoria Oldemburgo de Mello, Cathal O’Madagain, Michal Onderco, M. Soledad Palacios-Galvez, Jussi Palomäki, Yafeng Pan, Zsófia Papp, Philip Pärnamets, Mariola Paruzel-Czachura, Zoran Pavlović, César Payán-Gómez, Silva Perander, Michael Mark Pitman, Rajib Prasad, Joanna Pyrkosz-Pacyna, Steve Rathje, Ali Raza, Gabriel G. Rêgo, Kasey Rhee, Claire E. Robertson, Iván Rodríguez-Pascual, Teemu Saikkonen, Octavio Salvador-Ginez, Waldir M. Sampaio, Gaia C. Santi, Natalia Santiago-Tovar, David Savage, Julian A. Scheffer, Philipp Schönegger, David T. Schultner, Enid M. Schutte, Andy Scott, Madhavi Sharma, Pujan Sharma, Ahmed Skali, David Stadelmann, Clara Alexandra Stafford, Dragan Stanojević, Anna Stefaniak, Anni Sternisko, Augustin Stoica, Kristina K. Stoyanova, Brent Strickland, Jukka Sundvall, Jeffrey P. Thomas, Gustav Tinghög, Benno Torgler, Iris J. Traast, Raffaele Tucciarelli, Michael Tyrala, Nick D. Ungson, Mete S. Uysal, Paul A.M. Van Lange, Jan Willem van Prooijen, Dirk van Rooy, Daniel Västfjäll, Peter Verkoeijen, Joana B. Vieira, Christian von Sikorski, Alexander Cameron Walker, Jennifer Watermeyer, Erik Wetter, Ashley Whillans, Robin Willardt, Michael J.A. Wohl, Adrian Dominik Wójcik, Kaidi Wu, Yuki Yamada, Onurcan Yilmaz, Kumar Yogeeswaran, Carolin Theresa Ziemer, Rolf A. Zwaan, Paulo S. Boggio
*Corresponding author for this work
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Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

Changing collective behaviour and supporting non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important component in mitigating virus transmission during a pandemic. In a large international collaboration (Study 1, N = 49,968 across 67 countries), we investigated self-reported factors associated with public health behaviours (e.g., spatial distancing and stricter hygiene) and endorsed public policy interventions (e.g., closing bars and restaurants) during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic (April-May 2020). Respondents who reported identifying more strongly with their nation consistently reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies. Results were similar for representative and non-representative national samples. Study 2 (N = 42 countries) conceptually replicated the central finding using aggregate indices of national identity (obtained using the World Values Survey) and a measure of actual behaviour change during the pandemic (obtained from Google mobility reports). Higher levels of national identification prior to the pandemic predicted lower mobility during the early stage of the pandemic (r = −0.40). We discuss the potential implications of links between national identity, leadership, and public health for managing COVID-19 and future pandemics.

Original languageEnglish
Article number517
JournalNature Communications
Volume13
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2022
Externally publishedYes

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

  1. SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
    SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

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  • 1 Comment/debate

  • Author Correction: National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic (Nature Communications, (2022), 13, 1, (517), 10.1038/s41467-021-27668-9)

    Van Bavel, J. J., Cichocka, A., Capraro, V., Sjåstad, H., Nezlek, J. B., Pavlović, T., Alfano, M., Gelfand, M. J., Azevedo, F., Birtel, M. D., Cislak, A., Lockwood, P. L., Ross, R. M., Abts, K., Agadullina, E., Aruta, J. J. B., Besharati, S. N., Bor, A., Choma, B. L. & Crabtree, C. D. & 237 others, Cunningham, W. A., De, K., Ejaz, W., Elbaek, C. T., Findor, A., Flichtentrei, D., Franc, R., Gjoneska, B., Gruber, J., Gualda, E., Horiuchi, Y., Huynh, T. L. D., Ibanez, A., Imran, M. A., Israelashvili, J., Jasko, K., Kantorowicz, J., Kantorowicz-Reznichenko, E., Krouwel, A., Laakasuo, M., Lamm, C., Leygue, C., Lin, M. J., Mansoor, M. S., Marie, A., Mayiwar, L., Mazepus, H., McHugh, C., Minda, J. P., Mitkidis, P., Olsson, A., Otterbring, T., Packer, D. J., Perry, A., Petersen, M. B., Puthillam, A., Riaño-Moreno, J. C., Rothmund, T., Santamaría-García, H., Schmid, P. C., Stoyanov, D., Tewari, S., Todosijević, B., Tsakiris, M., Tung, H. H., Umbreș, R. G., Vanags, E., Vlasceanu, M., Vonasch, A., Yucel, M., Zhang, Y., Abad, M., Adler, E., Akrawi, N., Mdarhri, H. A., Amara, H., Amodio, D. M., Antazo, B. G., Apps, M., Ay, F. C., Ba, M. H., Barbosa, S., Bastian, B., Berg, A., Bernal-Zárate, M. P., Bernstein, M., Białek, M., Bilancini, E., Bogatyreva, N., Boncinelli, L., Booth, J. E., Borau, S., Buchel, O., Cameron, C. D., Carvalho, C. F., Celadin, T., Cerami, C., Chalise, H. N., Cheng, X., Cian, L., Cockcroft, K., Conway, J., Córdoba-Delgado, M. A., Crespi, C., Crouzevialle, M., Cutler, J., Cypryańska, M., Dabrowska, J., Daniels, M. A., Davis, V. H., Dayley, P. N., Delouvee, S., Denkovski, O., Dezecache, G., Dhaliwal, N. A., Diato, A. B., Di Paolo, R., Drosinou, M., Dulleck, U., Ekmanis, J., Ertan, A. S., Etienne, T. W., Farhana, H. H., Farkhari, F., Farmer, H., Fenwick, A., Fidanovski, K., Flew, T., Fraser, S., Frempong, R. B., Fugelsang, J. A., Gale, J., Garcia-Navarro, E. B., Garladinne, P., Ghajjou, O., Gkinopoulos, T., Gray, K., Griffin, S. M., Gronfeldt, B., Gümren, M., Gurung, R. L., Halperin, E., Harris, E., Herzon, V., Hruška, M., Huang, G., Hudecek, M. F. C., Isler, O., Jangard, S., Jørgensen, F. J., Kachanoff, F., Kahn, J., Dangol, A. K., Keudel, O., Koppel, L., Koverola, M., Kubin, E., Kunnari, A., Kutiyski, Y., Laguna, O., Leota, J., Lermer, E., Levy, J., Levy, N., Li, C., Long, E. U., Longoni, C., Maglić, M., McCashin, D., Metcalf, A. L., Mikloušić, I., El Mimouni, S., Miura, A., Molina-Paredes, J., Monroy-Fonseca, C., Morales-Marente, E., Moreau, D., Muda, R., Myer, A., Nash, K., Nesh-Nash, T., Nitschke, J. P., Nurse, M. S., Ohtsubo, Y., Oldemburgo de Mello, V., O’Madagain, C., Onderco, M., Palacios-Galvez, M. S., Palomäki, J., Pan, Y., Papp, Z., Pärnamets, P., Paruzel-Czachura, M., Pavlović, Z., Payán-Gómez, C., Perander, S., Pitman, M. M., Prasad, R., Pyrkosz-Pacyna, J., Rathje, S., Raza, A., Rêgo, G. G., Rhee, K., Robertson, C. E., Rodríguez-Pascual, I., Saikkonen, T., Salvador-Ginez, O., Sampaio, W. M., Santi, G. C., Santiago-Tovar, N., Savage, D., Scheffer, J. A., Schönegger, P., Schultner, D. T., Schutte, E. M., Scott, A., Sharma, M., Sharma, P., Skali, A., Stadelmann, D., Stafford, C. A., Stanojević, D., Stefaniak, A., Sternisko, A., Stoica, A., Stoyanova, K. K., Strickland, B., Sundvall, J., Thomas, J. P., Tinghög, G., Torgler, B., Traast, I. J., Tucciarelli, R., Tyrala, M., Ungson, N. D., Uysal, M. S., Van Lange, P. A. M., van Prooijen, J. W., van Rooy, D., Västfjäll, D., Verkoeijen, P., Vieira, J. B., von Sikorski, C., Walker, A. C., Watermeyer, J., Wetter, E., Whillans, A., Willardt, R., Wohl, M. J. A., Wójcik, A. D., Wu, K., Yamada, Y., Yilmaz, O., Yogeeswaran, K., Ziemer, C. T., Zwaan, R. A. & Boggio, P. S., Dec 2022, In: Nature Communications. 13, 1, 1949.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate

    Open Access

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