Towards a Globally Collaborative Behavioral Science: An Organizational Approach from Pandemic Psychology

The COVID-19 pandemic is among the greatest global disruptions to civil life in modern history. To mitigate the virus spread, many countries instituted various forms of lockdown, and urged citizens to take physical distancing measures to prevent transmission, some of which maybe required for years to come (Anderson, Heesterbeek, Goldstein, Grad, & Lipsitch, 2020; Parker, Knight, & Keller,2020). Each new pandemic is uncharted territory, and there is a paucity of research examining whether and how people can initiate or maintain such behavioral changes. Furthermore, global challenges may require globally-oriented collaborations, which in turn require organizational models that fit the situation.
The PsyCorona collaboration is a research project to examine processes involved in the COVID-19 pandemic, such as behavior that curbs virus transmission, which may implicate social norms, cooperation, and self-regulation. The study also examines psychosocial consequences of physical distancing strategies and societal lockdown, such as frustration of psychological and social needs, economic stressors, relationship strains, prejudice, psychological stress, and deteriorating mental health (e.g., Brooks etal., 2020). Related consequences were observed in past epidemics such as the 1918 flu pandemic (Dolan, 2020; Honigsbaum, 2019; Jeronimus, 2020). A global collaboration allows us to study the role of culture, and to make generalizable predictions on societal responses to virus infections. Culture may influence our living arrangements and how easily we adjust and cooperate at the societal level to mitigate virus transmission. Moreover, because the evolving coronavirus pandemic has implications for ongoing psychological and social development, we continue to track people over time.