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Conceptual model. Note. Outcomes are individual-level variables. All other boxes include country-level variables.

Conceptual model. Note. Outcomes are individual-level variables. All other boxes include country-level variables.

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Cross-societal differences in cooperation and trust among strangers in the provision of public goods may be key to understanding how societies are managing the COVID-19 pandemic. We report a survey conducted across 41 societies between March and May 2020 (N = 34,526), and test pre-registered hypotheses about how cross-societal differences in cooper...

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Context 1
... this in mind, the present work examines the usefulness of theory and research on crosssocietal differences in cooperation and trust for predicting early prosocial COVID-19 responses (e.g., social distancing)-a proxy for first-order cooperation in the dilemma-and support for behavioral regulation policies aimed at addressing the pandemic (e.g., mandatory quarantine)-akin to second-order cooperation to support an institution to solve the social dilemma. More specifically, as illustrated in Figure 1, we test a series of pre-registered hypotheses linking these COVID-19 responses to established cross-societal differences in cooperation and trust (among strangers) in social dilemmas ( Gächter et al., 2010;Romano et al., 2017) as well as societal and ecological factors theorized to shape norms of cooperation in social dilemmas (Hruschka & Henrich, 2013). We evaluate these hypotheses with multi-level models, utilizing country-level data (for cooperation, trust, and societal factors) to predict individual-level data (for prosocial COVID-19 responses and support for behavioral regulation policies). ...
Context 2
... test our hypotheses, we used mixed-effects models with societies (level-2) as a random factor. To examine the main effect of cooperation and trust on prosocial COVID-19 responses, we ran three sets of models to test our pre-registered hypotheses (H1a,b), each set with one predictor as a country-level fixed effect (i.e., cooperation and trust). In a second step, we added the interaction between stringency of policy and cooperation (trust; H6a,b). ...
Context 3
... a second step, we added the interaction between stringency of policy and cooperation (trust; H6a,b). Moreover, we ran several independent models using quality of institutions, religiosity, and historical prevalence of pathogens (level-2) to predict prosocial COVID-19 responses, and support for behavioral regulations to address the pandemic (level -1; H2, H3, H4). Finally, to analyze the relation between cooperation, trust and stringency of actual COVID-19 policies, we used simple regressions (as all indicators are measured at the country level; H5a,b). ...
Context 4
... this in mind, the present work examines the usefulness of theory and research on cross-societal differences in cooperation and trust for predicting early prosocial COVID-19 responses (e.g., social distancing) -a proxy for first-order cooperation in the dilemma -and support for behavioral regulation policies aimed at addressing the pandemic (e.g., mandatory quarantine) -akin to second-order cooperation to support an institution to solve the social dilemma. More specifically, as illustrated in Figure 1, we test a series of pre-registered hypotheses linking these COVID-19 responses to established cross-societal differences in cooperation and trust (among strangers) in social dilemmas ( Gächter et al., 2010;Romano et al., 2017) as well as societal and ecological factors theorized to shape norms of cooperation in social dilemmas (Hruschka & Henrich, 2013). We evaluate these hypotheses with multi-level models, utilizing country-level data (for cooperation, trust, and societal factors) to predict individuallevel data (for prosocial COVID-19 responses and support for behavioral regulation policies). ...

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... During times of crisis, individuals often encounter scarcity and uncertainty, prompting diverse responses ranging from altruistic acts of solidarity to self-serving behaviors, or even xenophobia (Bartoš et al., 2021). On the one hand, studies conducted during the pandemic show a great level of cooperation and solidarity among stakeholders at all levels (Brown & Susskind, 2020;Billiet et al., 2021;Romano et al., 2021). On the other hand, several other studies highlight instances of panic buying, hoarding of essential goods, and price gouging, driven by individuals' self-serving motivations (Bavel et al., 2020). ...
... mpted by unprecedented market dynamics, including stringent lockdown measures and restrictions induced by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. These events led to a re-evaluation of perspectives on strategy and its implementation, emphasizing the need for collaboration between a variety of internal and external constituents within the organizational framework [Romano et. al., 2021, Coetzee, 2021. The study sought to determine whether employee perceptions of system strategies had evolved in response to the evolving landscape characterized by increased complexity and interdependence. ...
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... The term of impersonal co-operation is taken from behaviourism (see, e.g., Fehr and Fischbacher, 2003), but it has also been applied to the creation of "valuable public goods, such as infrastructure, public services, and democracy" (Chen, 1996, p.192). One recent example is how co-operation between hitherto very distant groups has supported the COVID-19 pandemic response (Romano et al., 2020). The effects can also be seen in engagements to conserve natural resources, to mitigate the consequences of climate change, to suppress the spread of deadly diseases, to halt military aggression, and other public goods, all of them within the sphere of the SDGs. ...
... 59 A study of 41 communities with low levels of government trust during the COVID-19 pandemic found no link between stringent rules and greater cooperation with hand-washing or physical distancing. 60 Especially in such settings, governments must rely less on coercion and more on building policies that can help people overcome the difficulties they encounter in cooperating with public health guidance. For example, states in the United States that employed social protection policies, such as paid family and sick leave, appeared to have increased compliance with emergency response measures among people who otherwise could not afford to comply. ...
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Despite widespread acknowledgement that trust is important in a pandemic, few concrete proposals exist on how to incorporate trust into preparing for the next health crisis. One reason is that building trust is rightly perceived as slow and challenging. Although trust in public institutions and one another is essential in preparing for a pandemic, countries should plan for the possibility that efforts to instil or restore trust may fail. Incorporating trust into pandemic preparedness means acknowledging that polarization, partisanship and misinformation may persist and engaging with communities as they currently are, not as we would wish them to be. This paper presents a practical policy agenda for incorporating mistrust as a risk factor in pandemic preparedness and response planning. We propose two sets of evidence-based strategies: (i) strategies for ensuring the trust that already exists in a community is sustained during a crisis, such as mitigating pandemic fatigue by health interventions and honest and transparent sense-making communication; and (ii) strategies for promoting cooperation in communities where people mistrust their governments and neighbours, sometimes for legitimate, historical reasons. Where there is mistrust, pandemic preparedness and responses must rely less on coercion and more on tailoring local policies and building partnerships with community institutions and leaders to help people overcome difficulties they encounter in cooperating with public health guidance. The regular monitoring of interpersonal and government trust at national and local levels is a way of enabling this context-specific pandemic preparedness and response planning.
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... With a cross-sectional dataset of 84 countries, Elgar et al. (2020) showed social trust and a sense of group belonging were positively associated with more deaths. Based on a survey in 41 societies, Romano et al. (2021) failed to find evidence supporting that cross-societal variation in cooperation and trust among strangers is associated with prosocial COVID-19 responses, stringency of policies, and behavioral regulations support in 2020. ...
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... Experiments show this is more likely to occur during extreme dilemmas (Paredes et al., 2020), and the COVID-19 pandemic clearly qualifies as such a situation. Instances of reciprocal aid across communities (Ntontis & Rochas, 2020) and people eschewing their own freedoms for the greater good (Romano et al., 2021), during the COVID-19 pandemic illustrate how shared crises can heighten solidarity (Federico et al., 2021)-at least in the beginning stages (Jetten et al., 2021). ...
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... In the context of the COVID-19 outbreak, when social and political trust are ever more crucial to emplace coordina ted responses (Lalot et al., 2022;Romano et al., 2021), we therefore expect direct and indirect effects of legal status on social and political trust among refugees and migrants. More precisely, we hypothesized a main effect, so that secured legal status is directly associated with increased social and political trust (H1). ...
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