Warmth and competence perceptions of key protagonists are associated with containment measures during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from 35 countries

Maria‐Therese Friehs, Patrick F. Kotzur, Christine Kraus, Moritz Schemmerling, Jessica Alina Herzig, Adrian Stanciu, Sebastian Dilly, Lisa Hellert-Khattab, Doreen Hübner, Anja Rückwardt

56 more authors

Veruschka Ulizcay, Oliver Christ, Marco Brambilla, Jonas De keersmaecker, Federica Durante, Jessica Gale, Dmitry Sergeevich Grigoryev, Eric R. Igou, Nino Javakhishvili, Doris Kienmoser, Gandalf Nicolás, Julian A. Oldmeadow, Odile Rohmer, Bjørn Sætrevik, Julien Barbedor, Franco Bastias, Sebastian B. Bjørkheim, Aidos K. Bolatov, Nazire Duran, Andrej Findor, Friedrich Martin Götz, Sylvie Graf, Աննա Հակոբջանյան, Georgios T. HALKIAS, Camellia Hancheva, Martina Hřebı́čková, Matej Hruška, Shenel Husnu, Kamoliddin Kadirov, Narine Khachatryan, Francisco Guilherme L. Macedo, Ana Makashvili, Maylin Martínez-Muñoz, Eric Mercadante, Luiza Meseșan-Schmitz, Andreas Michael, Nozima Mullabaeva, Félix Fernando Monteiro Neto, Joana Neto, Merve Öztürk, Svitlana Paschenko, Agnieszka Pietraszkiewicz, Charis Psaltis, Yuting Qiu, Mirjana Rupar, Adil Samekin, Katharina Schmid, Sabine Sczesny, Yiwen Sun, Annika M. Svedholm‐Häkkinen, Aleksandra Szymków, Enoch Teye‐Kwadjo, Claudio Vaz Torres, Luc Vieira, Ягіяєв Ілля Ігорович, Vincent Y Yzerbyt

2022

Full text Open access: Gold Metadata (CSL-JSON)
DOI 10.1038/s41598-022-25228-9
Data confidence 70 medium
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Abstract

= 12,553) from 6 continents during the COVID-19 pandemic (between 2021 and 2022) obtained via cross-sectional surveys that the social perception of key protagonists on two basic dimensions-warmth and competence-plays a crucial role in shaping pandemic-related behaviors. Firstly, when asked in an open question format, heads of state, physicians, and protest movements were universally identified as key protagonists across countries. Secondly, multiple-group confirmatory factor analyses revealed that warmth and competence perceptions of these and other protagonists differed significantly within and between countries. Thirdly, internal meta-analyses showed that warmth and competence perceptions of heads of state, physicians, and protest movements were associated with support and opposition intentions, containment and prevention behaviors, as well as vaccination uptake. Our results have important implications for designing effective interventions to motivate desirable health outcomes and coping with future health crises and other global challenges.