BRB … I’m Bullying My Parents to Stay Indoors
From what I hear, many of our friends and parents (my folks included) still aren’t getting the urgency to stay indoors to slow the spread of the virus. To understand what persuasive techniques could help, I spoke with Dr. Gretchen Chapman, a psychology professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studies decision-making and vaccine promotion.
1. Focus on getting them to shelter in place rather than trying to change their beliefs about coronavirus.
When it comes to promoting vaccination, Dr. Chapman said there are three categories of appeals: to change a person’s beliefs (least effective), change their social norms, or change their environment (most effective).
In relation to COVID-19, people now practice social distancing because their environments have changed with school and business closures. When you set an example by posting on social media about practicing social distancing, people in your social circle and generation will take notice of that social norm. Meanwhile, changing beliefs is hard, and people don’t necessarily change their behavior even if they do change their minds.
2. Is ‘You might get others sick’ more effective than ‘You might get sick’? Not really.
Dr. Chapman said that within her vaccination research, there isn’t any evidence that appealing to a person’s selfish altruism – to get them to care about others by appealing to their own selfish interests – is effective. For example, in a study she conducted, parents were no more committed to getting the flu vaccine whether they were told they could prevent giving the flu to their child or told they could prevent getting the flu from their child.
3. Wartime rhetoric resonates with some people.
President Trump’s pivot last week to wartime rhetoric – calling the coronavirus fight “our big war” – might strike a chord with older generations. (Trump has since backed down from this tenor, now calling for the economy to reopen by Easter, while New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy have called upon him to aggressively back his original message.) This language evokes the familiar concept of everyone having to make sacrifices in order to “win,” because it illustrates the impending threat, Dr. Chapman said. However, depending on which state you live in, the pandemic threat may not seem that scary yet. Dr. Chapman said the problem is similar to getting people invested in doing things to reduce climate change. It’s difficult to motivate people for a looming threat that they can’t see.
At the very least, it’s nice knowing I can influence my peers by Instagramming how I’m spending my time in quarantine: installing shelving I’ve put off for weeks and playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons on Nintendo Switch.
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