We examined whether (the lack of) social support can explain why researchers have found lower rates of adherence to follow public health guidelines amongst people who perceived themselves as coming from lower social class backgrounds during the COVID-19 pandemic. To do this, we surveyed 5818 participants from 10 countries during the first wave of lock-down. Contrary to previous findings, social class was not related to general adherence to COVID-19 regulations or desire to engage in citizenship behaviours (e.g., showing initiatives to help others during the pandemic). However, we found evidence of an indirect effect whereby those who perceived themselves as higher social class were more likely to be both the recipient and provider of social support which in turn predicted greater adherence and desire to engage in citizenship behaviours during the earlier wave of the pandemic. Our findings highlight the importance of social support in unlocking potential for collective cooperation (i.e., adherence to COVID-19 rules and desire to engage in citizenship behaviours). They suggest that instead of enforcing strict regulations, government authorities need to address existing social support barriers within lower income communities to facilitate cooperation from everyone in the community.

中文翻译：

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在 COVID-19 中解锁集体合作：社会支持在预测合作中的社会阶层差距中的作用

我们研究了（缺乏）社会支持是否可以解释为什么研究人员发现在 COVID-19 大流行期间自认为来自较低社会阶层背景的人遵守公共卫生指南的遵守率较低。为此，我们在第一波封锁期间对来自 10 个国家的 5818 名参与者进行了调查。与之前的研究结果相反，社会阶层与普遍遵守 COVID-19 法规或参与公民行为的愿望（例如，在大流行期间表现出帮助他人的举措）无关。然而，我们发现了间接影响的证据，即那些认为自己社会阶层较高的人更有可能既是接受者又是提供者这反过来又预示着在大流行的早期浪潮中会有更大的坚持和参与公民行为的愿望。我们的研究结果强调了社会支持在释放集体合作潜力方面的重要性（即遵守COVID-19 规则和参与公民行为的愿望）。他们建议，政府当局需要解决低收入社区现有的社会支持障碍，而不是执行严格的规定，以促进社区中每个人的合作。