When Do Attitudes Predict COVID-19 Protection Behaviors?

Have you ever wondered why people varied so much in how they responded to public health advice from governments and organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) during the COVID-19 pandemic? Most people know individuals who consistently followed the provided advice by doing things like always wearing a mask in public places, but also others who only intermittently or never engaged in these behaviors.

Why did people differ in how they responded? One explanation is that people differed in their attitudes toward these behaviors. Those who thought these behaviors were a good idea because they thought the behavior might protect them from getting the virus from others or giving the virus to others should be more likely to engage in these behaviors more regularly. Our recent work conducted at the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield in the UK suggests that although this is part of the answer, it is not all of it. Our research also showed that it was when those attitudes were strong that they were most likely to correspond with the behavior.

Strong Attitudes

What are strong attitudes? Social psychologists have labeled attitudes that are good at predicting behavior as strong attitudes. Strong attitudes typically stay the same over time and so are more likely to produce consistent behavior over time. In addition, strong attitudes tend to be based on knowing a lot about the behavior or having given it a lot of thought. Strong attitudes also tend to be judged as important to the individual and are held with certainty. In contrast, weak attitudes tend to be associated with having mixed thoughts and feelings about the behavior. 

Strong attitudes have a lot of defining elements—such as certainty, importance, and consistency—but which one is key for a strong attitude? Our research sought to answer this question in relation to people's attitudes towards behaviors recommended by the WHO to help protect against COVID-19, like consistently wearing a face mask in public places.

This Study

We surveyed around 500 UK adults on their attitudes towards each of six COVID-19 protection behaviors, and we asked for the strength of each attitude. Then one and two months later the same people reported whether they had consistently engaged in each of the behaviors in the intervening period.

Not surprisingly, attitudes were good predictors of engaging in each of the behaviors. So, people who thought positive things about the behavior were more likely to consistently perform that behavior, later. However, strong attitudes were much better predictors of people's behavior than weak attitudes. For example, attitudes predicted behavior better when people felt certain about their attitude. In contrast, attitudes predicted behavior worse when people had mixed thoughts and feelings about the behavior. 

Importantly, when all the different predictors of attitude strength were considered at the same time, only the importance of the attitude influenced how well attitudes predicted behavior. Important attitudes are strong attitudes that drive our behavior.

What does this research mean for attempts to change COVID-19 behaviors like wearing face masks? It seems that people not only need to think that doing the behavior is a good idea, but also that holding such an attitude is important. While the former might be changed by messages targeting the benefits of the behavior, importance might be increased by messages targeting the self-interest served by the behavior and linking the behavior to one's values, such as protecting your own health for the benefit of yourself and your loved ones.

For Further Reading

Conner, M., Wilding, S., & Norman, P. (2022). Testing predictors of attitude strength as determinants of attitude stability and attitude-behavior relationships: A multi-behaviour study. European Journal of Social Psychology, 52(4), 656-668. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp2844 

Howe, L. C., & Krosnick, J. A. (2017). Attitude strength. Annual Review of Psychology, 68, 327-351. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033600
 

Mark Conner is Professor of Applied Social Psychology in the School of Psychology at the University of Leeds, UK. His research focuses on predicting and changing health behaviors through targeting attitudes and intentions.

Sarah Wilding is Research Fellow in the School of Psychology at the University of Leeds, UK.  Her research interests focus on predicting and changing health behaviors with a focus on screening behaviors.

Paul Norman is a Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Sheffield, UK. His research focuses on the application of social cognition models (e.g., theory of planned behavior, health belief model, protection motivation theory) to the prediction of health behavior. His more recent work has focused on developing and testing interventions to change health behavior, including the use of online interventions.