COVID-Dynamic Longitudinal Study
2020 Was Certainly a Dynamic Year
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was ravaging the world, and especially the United States. Although it is home to only about 4% of the world population, the U.S. had a much greater percent of the confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths.
The pandemic also triggered dramatic economic upheaval and highlighted long existing societal fissures. Following the killing of George Floyd in May 2020, we saw the most widespread civil rights movement in decades.
2020 was dynamic - societally and personally. This study seeks to better understand the psychological and experiential factors that influenced how Americans responded to these stresses. What accounted for differences in compliance with public health guidelines? How did events impact attitudes and psychological traits?
Emotions and beliefs are major factors in decision making. We hope that this study can provide a better understanding of the emotional factors that influenced people's decision-making as the pandemic swept through the US and other events rippled through society,
- Caltech
Ralph Adolphs
Although face-to-face testing at Caltech has temporarily ceased, our research never stops. The COVID-Dynamic study provides a unique opportunity to gain insights about social behavior and decision making in response to a real-world event.
- Chapman University
Uri Maoz
One thing that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed are norms like social distancing and mask wearing. To what degree have these norms been internalized explicitly and implicitly? We are investigating the effects of these and other COVID-19-induced biases on decision making and behavior.
- The City College of New York
Teresa Lopez-Castro
How do we make sense of ourselves and others during a collective crisis? How do our prior experiences of stress inform how we understand the upheaval that 2020 has wrought? I'm really excited by what we'll learn about the interplay between prior adversity, resilience, and risk in the lives of COVID-DYNAMIC participants.
- Rutgers University
Denise Hien
We know that substance use is on the rise nationally, as there have been so many challenges to the typical ways that people manage their stresses during lockdown and reopening related to the dual pandemics. COVID Dynamic will help provide new windows into how stress, substance use and other social factors affect decision-making and wellness behaviors.