Joey, a 4th year graduate student in the lab, was awarded a 2020 Library Innovation Prizes for Innovations in Research Rigor, Transparency or Reproducibility for his project and publication “Emotional responses to prosocial messages increase willingness to self-isolate during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
In a perspective piece on the project for the Carney Institute for Brain Science, Joey, Marc, & Oriel wrote:
“As the COVID-19 pandemic tears through almost every country, public health officials and governments continue to implore citizens to take preventative measures in the hopes of ‘flattening the curve.’ Unfortunately, preliminary reports show vast differences in people’s willingness to embrace public health measures: In March, only 50% of individuals reported wearing face masks in public. And recent anti-quarantine protests represent an even more extreme resistance to complying with preventative measures. This pandemic presents a unique, generation-defining challenge — how do we encourage people to adapt and change their usual habits to adhere to preventative measures that can mitigate the spread of COVID-19?
With each new day bringing more infections and deaths from COVID-19, it is vital to understand how different emotional frames drive behavioral compliance. We tackled this question in a new study by developing two messages to motivate participants to self-isolate: One that leveraged threatening language, and another meant to evoke positive emotions through prosocial actions.”