To beat coronavirus, we need to start thinking about the people around us
By: Paulius Yamin*
As Lithuania enters its second quarantine week, few times in our recent history has it been so important to change our behaviours as it is now. Let me explain.
In the coronavirus pandemic we are facing, as in many other social challenges we face, systemic measures by local, national and international authorities and companies are essential. But these measures won´t go far if people don´t change their everyday behaviours as well. The story of the so-called “patient 31” in South Korea, who had contact and possibly infected more than 1,000 people even after developing symptoms, is a frightening example of that. Fortunately, thousands of people in Lithuania and millions of people around the world are doing what they can to reduce the spread of the virus: we’re applying social distancing, we’re washing our hands more often and avoiding touching our face, and we’re even volunteering to help the most vulnerable and to create innovative solutions. Because unless any state has the resources to place a policeman in each house to make sure we all follow these guidelines, flattening the crisis curve is up to us, ordinary and unsupervised citizens, to comply with them through the millions of small actions we do every day.
Inspiring people to change
But how can we inspire more and more people to follow protection measures in their everyday life? Well, it isn’t easy. It requires discipline and creativity. Nevertheless, simple changes in narratives and cheap actions can have a great impact, and have already been shown to be effective to transform other large-scale behavioural trends. Government action is essential in this front, of course, but we don´t even need to wait for the government to take the initiative.
First, we need to make visible the fact that the majority of people are complying with the quarantine procedures and that a very significant number are even going beyond that to responsibly help those in need. Negative stories of people getting sick or ignoring the quarantine are good to get clicks and maybe are important cautionary tales, but we should be careful to balance the narratives and not transmit the message that “many people are not doing this, so it doesn´t matter if I do it as well”. Rather, we should be everything possible to communicate the meesage: “most people are complying with the quarantine and expect me to do it as well, so I should”. This is the power of social influence, the idea that we tend to do what we think others are doing or consider acceptable, and its efficacy to influence behaviour has been documented through decades of empirical research in psychology.
Second, we need to make visible and engage with the social consequences of our actions (good and bad). Without going further, psychological research has shown that in order to promote handwashing, for example, it is not enough to appeal to personal consequences - for example, telling people to wash their hands because they might get sick themselves. Making social consequences visible, on the other hand, has been shown in psychological experiments to be more effective: telling people to wash their hands because it might prevent others from getting sick. As it turns out, appeals to take care of ourselves are useful, but appeals to use our own actions to take care of everyone around might be much more effective.
But beyond that, social aspects hold an even greater power. This crisis has shown, and will continue to show, that human survival is not only about “environmental” sustainability. Social sustainability, or the ability of societies to adapt to changing conditions, is also essential. And research has shown that in order to have social sustainability, we need to trust other members of society, we need to create common meanings with them, we need to promote our capacity to learn, and we need to reinforce our capacity to self-organize.
Social distancing, in fact, doesn´t mean to lose human connection. And connecting to others that are willing to help (even while staying at home), can radically transform problems into solutions. Because of this, in addition to all the advice to make quarantine at home easier which is common online, there are few things that can give you more satisfaction during this time than to feel that you have acted with others to help someone in a responsible way. Find those people and engage with them online or through the phone: they might even be the friends you already know or the people that live in the flat next to you.
Towards new futures
Humanity will overcome this crisis despite the losses and suffering it might cause. But hopefully, this won´t mean a return to “business as usual”. Among the many things that could change, I hope this crisis will transform the way we see our role as citizens in the world (as David Luna has developed in this thread). That it will give us an enhanced vision of how every little action we do often have a large-scale social consequence. That it will show us that getting together with others to try to solve the problems we complaint about all day is easier and more impactful than we think. We’ll have to wait (and continue working) and see.
If you’re interested in how behavioural sciences can make the world better (including the current crisis) or have ideas to transform the behaviour of people, don´t hesitate to contact me at: https://www.behavioural-lab.com/join3-5
* Paulius is a Lithuanian descendant who lives with his Colombian family in Vilnius. He the Managing Partner of the Behavioural Lab LT, a PhD Candidate and Researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an MJJ Fondas Scholar and Research Fellow at VGTU. In the past, he has worked as external consultant for the International Labour Organization (the UN agency in charge of work issues), as Head of the Behavioural and Cultural Team at the Colombian Government, and as research assistant for Antanas Mockus.