For my or other's safety: Conformity values and pandemic prevention behaviors in China and the United States.

CHINA; UNITED States

Drawing on Schwartz's basic individual values theory and the expectancy theory, we contend that conformity values have a widespread role in explaining pandemic prevention behaviors, and perceived impact of such behaviors would amplify or mitigate the value-behavior relation. Moreover, we also examined whether these effects are different in Chinese and American cultural contexts. We conducted three studies with different designs and samples (N = 1341). The results suggested that the conformity-rules values were associated with pandemic prevention behaviors, and these effects were negatively moderated by perceived egoistic impact, but positively moderated by perceived altruistic impact. It also found that Chinese individuals had higher levels of conformity-rules values but lower levels of conformity-interpersonal values than American individuals. Finally, the predictive power of two types of conformity values on prevention behaviors were similar in China and U.S., while there are some differences in the moderating effects of perceived egoistic/altruistic impact between the two countries. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Intercultural Relations is the property of Pergamon Press - An Imprint of Elsevier Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)