Adherence to protective measures during the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of trust in science

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Simone Dohle
• Subject Area: Social Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology
• Term: from 2021 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 466206070

Personal protective measures are crucial to prevent the spread of COVID-19. These measures include, among others, social distancing, good hand hygiene, and wearing face masks. It is therefore of prime importance to better understand the factors that increase adherence to these measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, and insights from social and behavioral science may help to identify such factors. Recently published research has shown that trust in science plays an important role for the adherence to protective measures. Although the relationship between trust in science and adherence to protective measures seems to be relatively robust, many questions remain unanswered. First, existing research has primarily used cross-sectional research designs. It is unclear whether trust in science causally affects adherence to protective measures; hence, experimental research is needed to demonstrate a causal relationship. Second, it is not clear how trust in science can be maintained or increased in the short term. This is especially important in a pandemic, where it is crucial to develop effective health and science communication to increase adherence to protective measures. Third, it is unknown why trust in science increases protective behaviors. Because classic social cognition models of health behavior models usually do not take trust in science into account, there is a need to integrate trust in science into these models. In this proposal, it is argued that trust in science is related to perceived response efficacy, i.e., an individual’s expectancy that carrying out a behavior can remove a certain health threat. Trust in science may increase response efficacy, which in turn positively influences adherence to protective measures. The present research project aims to close these research gaps and, in doing so, identifies ways to increase trust in science, especially among those segments of the population where trust in science is low (i.e., individuals low in education). Insights from this project will be important to better understand the relationship between trust in science and adherence to protective measures. In this respect, the project also provides important information for health and science communication in future pandemic crises.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Ireland
• Cooperation Partner: Dr. Ann-Christin Posten