A large-scale international project that included data from 67 countries and approximately 50,000 people found that individuals who identified with their nation more strongly engaged in COVID-19 public health behaviors and supported COVID-related public health policies to a greater extent. This research was published in Nature Communications.
Since October 2021, the COVID-19 virus has infected over 235 million people worldwide. When vaccines were not readily available, non-pharmaceutical interventions such as behavior change (e.g., social distancing, handwashing) helped mitigate the spread of the virus. Some evidence suggests that โa shared sense of solidarityโ increased compliance with public health measures.
In this work, Jay J. Van Bavel and collaborators investigated the role of national identity and other possible social motives in collective health efforts throughout the pandemic.
Study 1 included 49,968 participants; the average age was 43, and all continents except Antarctica were represented in the recruited sample. All participating research teams were asked to collect data from at least 500 participants. In randomized order, participants completed various psychological measures and reported their engagement in public health behaviors. The primary predictor included two items assessing national identity and the secondary predictor included three items assessing national narcissism.
Participants provided ratings on a scale of 0 (strongly disagree) to 10 (strongly agree). The third predictor was one item on political ideology, with response options ranging from 0 (extremely liberal/left-leaning) to 10 (extremely conservative/right-leaning). The researchers included three measures of public health support [e.g., During the days of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic… I have been staying at home as much as practically possible; I have been in favour of closing all schools and universities].
Study 2 included data from publicly available datasets, including the World Values Survey and the COVID-19 Google Community Mobility Reports. While the survey included items assessing national pride and closeness to oneโs nation, the mobility reports provided data on movement throughout oneโs community (e.g., grocery stores, parks). A total of 42 countries were included in the second study.
The researchers found that national identity was associated with support for and engagement in public health behaviors worldwide. Public health support was operationalized as physical distancing and physical hygiene, support for policy interventions, and reduction in physical movement during the pandemic. This pattern emerged in self-report measures at the individual level, and actual mobility at the country level.
While national identity and national narcissism were positively associated with support for public health measures, right-wing political ideology had a negative correlation with this outcome. The authors write, โThis suggests that a collective identity might be associated with valuing the protection of the entire group during a pandemic, even after adjusting for their ideological differences.โ
The authors also note that the association between national identity and public health support are distinct from national narcissism. National narcissism was associated with physical hygiene and support for COVID-19 preventative policies, but this was a smaller effect compared to national identity, and was also context-dependent.
With regard to study limitations, the researchers highlight that this work is correlational and was conducted at the beginning of the pandemic. Thus, causal claims cannot be made, maintaining the possibility that public health behaviors caused national identity, or perhaps, that both were caused by a third factor. As well, it could be that this pattern does not apply to the later stages of the pandemic or future pandemics.
The authors conclude, โOur large-scale studies suggest that identification with oneโs nation is positively associated with support for and engagement in critical behavioral public health measures. Understanding the role of social identity appears to be an important issue when addressing public health crises.โ
The study, โNational identity predicts public health support during a global pandemicโ, was authored by Jay J. Van Bavel, Aleksandra Cichocka, Valerio Capraro, Hallgeir Sjรฅstad, John B. Nezlek, Tomislav Pavloviฤ, Mark Alfano, Michele J. Gelfand, Flavio Azevedo, Michรจle 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, Agustin Ibanez, Mostak Ahamed Imran, Jacob Israelashvili, Katarzyna Jasko, Jaroslaw Kantorowicz, Elena Kantorowicz-Reznichenko, Andrรฉ 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, Juliรกn C. Riaรฑo-Moreno, Tobias Rothmund, Hernando Santamarรญa-Garcรญa, Petra C. Schmid, Drozdstoy Stoyanov, Shruti Tewari, Bojan Todosijeviฤ, Manos Tsakiris, Hans H. Tung, Radu G. Umbreศ, 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-Zรกrate, Michael Bernstein, Michaล Biaลek, 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 Cรณrdoba-Delgado, Chiara Crespi, Marie Crouzevialle, Jo Cutler, Marzena Cypryaลska, 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, Jฤnis 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. Begoรฑa Garcia-Navarro, Prasad Garladinne, Oussama Ghajjou, Theofilos Gkinopoulos, Kurt Gray, Siobhรกn M. Griffin, Bjarki Gronfeldt, Mert Gรผmren, Ranju Lama Gurung, Eran Halperin, Elizabeth Harris, Volo Herzon, Matej Hruลกka, Guanxiong Huang, Matthias F. C. Hudecek, Ozan Isler, Simon Jangard, Frederik J. Jรธrgensen, 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 Magliฤ, Darragh McCashin, Alexander L. Metcalf, Igor Miklouลกiฤ, Soulaimane El Mimouni, Asako Miura, Juliana Molina-Paredes, Cรฉsar Monroy-Fonseca, Elena Morales-Marente, David Moreau, Rafaล Muda, Annalisa Myer, Kyle Nash, Tarik Nesh-Nash, Jonas P. Nitschke, Matthew S. Nurse, Yohsuke Ohtsubo, Victoria Oldemburgo de Mello, Cathal OโMadagain, Michal Onderco, M. Soledad Palacios-Galvez, Jussi Palomรคki, Yafeng Pan, Zsรณfia Papp, Philip Pรคrnamets, Mariola Paruzel-Czachura, Zoran Pavloviฤ, Cรฉsar Payรกn-Gรณmez, Silva Perander, Michael Mark Pitman, Rajib Prasad, Joanna Pyrkosz-Pacyna, Steve Rathje, Ali Raza, Gabriel G. Rรชgo, Kasey Rhee, Claire E. Robertson, Ivรกn Rodrรญguez-Pascual, Teemu Saikkonen, Octavio Salvador-Ginez, Waldir M. Sampaio, Gaia C. Santi, Natalia Santiago-Tovar, David Savage, Julian A. Scheffer, Philipp Schรถnegger, David T. Schultner, Enid M. Schutte, Andy Scott, Madhavi Sharma, Pujan Sharma, Ahmed Skali, David Stadelmann, Clara Alexandra Stafford, Dragan Stanojeviฤ, Anna Stefaniak, Anni Sternisko, Agustin Stoica, Kristina K. Stoyanova, Brent Strickland, Jukka Sundvall, Jeffrey P. Thomas, Gustav Tinghรถg, 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 Vรคstfjรคll, 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 Wรณjcik, Kaidi Wu, Yuki Yamada, Onurcan Yilmaz, Kumar Yogeeswaran, Carolin-Theresa Ziemer, Rolf A. Zwaan & Paulo S. Boggio