A Psychological Pandemic: The Effects of Social Group Identity and Normative Influences on College Students’ COVID-19 Risk Behavior

Abstract

Prior research has examined the effects of peer influence on risk-taking behavior, but substantially less published work has investigated the social influences on health safety behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. The present study examined Princeton students’ pandemic risk behavior through an exploratory survey of their retrospective and prospective experiences with COVID-19. Statistical analyses of participants’ responses revealed that students relied heavily on their observations of peers to determine their pandemic risk behavior, particularly when such observations were incongruous with institutional guidelines surrounding COVID-19 safety. Such reliance on peers appeared to operate below the level of awareness. In a follow-up pilot study, participants were engaged in a deception experiment in which their COVID-19 safety behavior was observed in the presence of different mask-wearing norms. In both the survey and the pilot experiment, participants who were exposed to people wearing masks were significantly more likely to put on a mask than those who were not, regardless of the institutional guideline surrounding mask-wearing. These findings underscore the importance of taking a social psychological approach to disease transmission. Limitations, directions for future research, and implications for public health guidelines are discussed.