COVID-19 Personal Protective Behaviors during Large Social Events: The Value of Behavioral Observations
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Published:2024-01-17
Issue:1
Volume:14
Page:63
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ISSN:2076-328X
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Container-title:Behavioral Sciences
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language:en
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Short-container-title:Behavioral Sciences
Author:
Gould Ashley1, Lewis Lesley2ORCID, Evans Lowri3ORCID, Greening Leanne4, Howe-Davies Holly5, West Jonathan1, Roberts Chris5, Parkinson John A.6ORCID
Affiliation:
1. Public Health Wales, Cardif CF10 4BZ, UK 2. Somerset Council, Somerset TA1 4DY, UK 3. Costain Group Ltd., Maidenhead SL6 4UB, UK 4. School of Management, Swansea University, Swansea SA1 8EN, UK 5. Welsh Government, Cardiff CF10 3NQ, UK 6. Wales Centre for Behaviour Change, Department of Psychology, Bangor University, Bangor LL57 2AS, UK
Abstract
Within the context of reopening society in the summer of 2021, as the UK moved away from ‘lockdowns’, the Government of Wales piloted the return of organized ‘mass gatherings’ of people at a number of test events. The current study reports behavioral observations that were made at two of the test events to inform this process. The researchers were particularly interested in four key factors: how (1) context within a venue, (2) environmental design, (3) staffing and social norms, and (4) time across an event, affected the personal protective behaviors of social distancing and face-covering use. Data collection was undertaken by trained observers. Adherence to protective behaviors was generally high, but there is clear evidence that these behaviors were shaped in a systematic way by the environment, situational cues, and the passage of time during the events. Some instances of large-scale non-adherence to personal protective behaviors were documented. An analysis within a dual-process framework suggests ways to understand and respond to supporting target health behaviors in groups of people where intervention is deemed valuable, such as in complex or ambiguous contexts. This is one of the first studies to include a ‘true’ behavioral measure in understanding human responses to COVID-19. It demonstrates that behavioral observations can add precision and granularity to understanding human behavior in complex real-world contexts. Given the significant physical and mental health burden created acutely and chronically by COVID-19, this work has implications for how governments and organizations support target populations in other complex challenges facing us today, such as in sustainability, and healthy lifestyle behaviors. An individual’s intentions are not always matched by their actions, and so the findings support a balanced liberal paternalistic approach where system-level changes support appropriate individual-level decisions to engender collective responsibility and action.
Subject
Behavioral Neuroscience,General Psychology,Genetics,Development,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
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