The role of political affiliation & fundamental needs in cooperation w/US COVID-19 Safety Guidelines
Channel: IASC COMMONS
Date: 26/10/2020

“Don’t Waste the Covid-19 Crisis” webinar series, this week’s entitled “The role of political affiliation and fundamental needs in cooperation with U.S. COVID-19 Safety Guidelines” with guest speaker Daniel DeCaro from University of Louisville. 

Voluntary cooperation with COVID-19 protocols represents a complex social dilemma. He will discuss how Humanistic Rational Choice Theory (HRCT) can explain attitudes towards compliance with government leaders at the national and state levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to HRCT, people choose to cooperate when their basic social-psychological needs for procedural justice, self-determination, security, equity, belonging, and competence are met. When government systems satisfy these needs, people become more intrinsically motivated to cooperate. He will present survey data from an NSF-funded project with 770 people (50% Republican/Democrat) from four large U.S. states (CA, NY, FL, TX) at the center of the pandemic. He demonstrates that Republicans and Democrats perceive their governance systems differently, altering their perceived need satisfaction and current and future cooperation with COVID-19 rules. These findings suggest cooperation may be improved with multi-actor communication and shared decision making in a more participatory democratic process.