TY  - JOUR
A1  - Frenzel, Svenja Beatrice
A1  - Haslam, S. Alexander
A1  - Junker, Nina Mareen
A1  - Bolatov, Aidos
A1  - Erkens, Valerie A.
A1  - Häusser, Jan
A1  - Kark, Ronit
A1  - Meyer, Ines
A1  - Mojzisch, Andreas
A1  - Monzani, Lucas
A1  - Reicher, Stephen David
A1  - Samekin, Adil
A1  - Schuh, Sebastian C.
A1  - Steffens, Niklas K.
A1  - Sultanova, Liliya
A1  - Van Dijk, Dina
A1  - Zyl, Llewellyn Ellardus van
A1  - Dick, Rolf van
T1  - How national leaders keep 'us' safe: A longitudinal, four-nation study exploring the role of identity leadership as a predictor of adherence to COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions
T2  - BMJ Open
N2  - Objectives: To investigate whether citizens’ adherence to health-protective non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) during the COVID-19 pandemic is predicted by identity leadership, wherein leaders are perceived to create a sense of shared national identity.
Design: Observational two-wave study. Hypotheses testing was conducted with structural equation modelling.
Setting: Data collection during the COVID-19 pandemic in China, Germany, Israel and the USA in April/May 2020 and four weeks later.
Participants: Adults in China (n=548, 66.6% women), Germany (n=182, 78% women), Israel (n=198, 51.0% women) and the USA (n=108, 58.3% women).
Measures: Identity leadership (assessed by the four-item Identity Leadership Inventory Short-Form) at Time 1, perceived shared national identification (PSNI; assessed with four items) and adherence to health-protective NPIs (assessed with 10 items that describe different health-protective interventions; for example, wearing face masks) at Time 2.
Results: Identity leadership was positively associated with PSNI (95% CI0.11 to 0.30, p<0.001) in all countries. This, in turn, was related to more adherence to health-protective NPIs in all countries (95% CI 0.03 to 0.36, 0.001≤p≤0.017) except Israel (95% CI−0.03 to 0.27, p=0.119). In Germany, the more people saw Chancellor Merkel as engaging in identity leadership, the more they adhered to health-protective NPIs (95% CI 0.04 to 0.18, p=0.002). In the USA, in contrast, the more people perceived President Trump as engaging in identity leadership, the less they adhered to health-protective NPIs (95% CI−0.17 to −0.04, p=0.002).
Conclusions: National leaders can make a difference by promoting a sense of shared identity among their citizens because people are more inclined to follow health-protective NPIs to the extent that they feel part of a united ‘us’. However, the content of identity leadership (perceptions of what it means to be a nation’s citizen) is essential, because this can also encourage people to disregard such recommendations.
Y1  - 2022
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/85511
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-855115
SN  - 2044-6055
N1  - This research was supported by a grant from the German Research Foundation awarded to RvD, NMJ and JAH (DI 848/15-1 and HA 6455/4-1). The German Research Foundation was not involved in the study design, data collection, analysis or interpretation.
VL  - 12
IS  - 5, art. e054980
SP  - 1
EP  - 10
PB  - BMJ Publishing Group
CY  - London
ER  -