Changes in social norms during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic across 43 countries.

The emergence of COVID-19 dramatically changed social behavior across societies and contexts. Here we study whether social norms also changed. Specifically, we study this question for cultural tightness (the degree to which societies generally have strong norms), specific social norms (e.g. stealing, hand washing), and norms about enforcement, using survey data from 30,431 respondents in 43 countries recorded before and in the early stages following the emergence of COVID-19. Using variation in disease intensity, we shed light on the mechanisms predicting changes in social norm measures. We find evidence that, after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, hand washing norms increased while tightness and punishing frequency slightly decreased but observe no evidence for a robust change in most other norms. Thus, at least in the short term, our findings suggest that cultures are largely stable to pandemic threats except in those norms, hand washing in this case, that are perceived to be directly relevant to dealing with the collective threat.

Earth stewardship: Shaping a sustainable future through interacting policy and norm shifts.

Transformation toward a sustainable future requires an earth stewardship approach to shift society from its current goal of increasing material wealth to a vision of sustaining built, natural, human, and social capital-equitably distributed across society, within and among nations. Widespread concern about earth's current trajectory and support for actions that would foster more sustainable pathways suggests potential social tipping points in public demand for an earth stewardship vision. Here, we draw on empirical studies and theory to show that movement toward a stewardship vision can be facilitated by changes in either policy incentives or social norms. Our novel contribution is to point out that both norms and incentives must change and can do so interactively. This can be facilitated through leverage points and complementarities across policy areas, based on values, system design, and agency. Potential catalysts include novel democratic institutions and engagement of non-governmental actors, such as businesses, civic leaders, and social movements as agents for redistribution of power. Because no single intervention will transform the world, a key challenge is to align actions to be synergistic, persistent, and scalable.

Governance in the Face of Extreme Events: Lessons from Evolutionary Processes for Structuring Interventions, and the Need to Go Beyond.

The increasing frequency of extreme events, exogenous and endogenous, poses challenges for our societies. The current pandemic is a case in point; but "once-in-a-century" weather events are also becoming more common, leading to erosion, wildfire and even volcanic events that change ecosystems and disturbance regimes, threaten the sustainability of our life-support systems, and challenge the robustness and resilience of societies. Dealing with extremes will require new approaches and large-scale collective action. Preemptive measures can increase general resilience, a first line of protection, while more specific reactive responses are developed. Preemptive measures also can minimize the negative effects of events that cannot be avoided. In this paper, we first explore approaches to prevention, mitigation and adaptation, drawing inspiration from how evolutionary challenges have made biological systems robust and resilient, and from the general theory of complex adaptive systems. We argue further that proactive steps that go beyond will be necessary to reduce unacceptable consequences.

Perceptions of the appropriate response to norm violation in 57 societies.

Norm enforcement may be important for resolving conflicts and promoting cooperation. However, little is known about how preferred responses to norm violations vary across cultures and across domains. In a preregistered study of 57 countries (using convenience samples of 22,863 students and non-students), we measured perceptions of the appropriateness of various responses to a violation of a cooperative norm and to atypical social behaviors. Our findings highlight both cultural universals and cultural variation. We find a universal negative relation between appropriateness ratings of norm violations and appropriateness ratings of responses in the form of confrontation, social ostracism and gossip. Moreover, we find the country variation in the appropriateness of sanctions to be consistent across different norm violations but not across different sanctions. Specifically, in those countries where use of physical confrontation and social ostracism is rated as less appropriate, gossip is rated as more appropriate.

Fragility of the provision of local public goods to private and collective risks.

Smallholder agricultural systems, strongly dependent on water resources and investments in shared infrastructure, make a significant contribution to food security in developing countries. These communities are being increasingly integrated into the global economy and are exposed to new global climate-related risks that may affect their willingness to cooperate in community-level collective action problems. We performed field experiments on public goods with private and collective risks in 118 small-scale rice-producing communities in four countries. Our results indicate that increasing the integration of those communities with the broader economic system is associated with lower investments in public goods when facing collective risks. These findings indicate that local public good provision may be negatively affected by collective risks, especially in communities more integrated with the market economy.

Blattella germánica (Blattodea: Blattellidae) como potencial vector mecánico de infecciones asociadas a la atención en salud (IAAS) en un centro hospitalario de Villavicencio (Meta-Colombia) / Blattella germánica (Blattodea: Blattellidae) as potential mechanical vector of health-care associated infections in a hospital in Villavicencio (Meta-Colombia)

Objetivo. Identificar las especies de cucarachas y bacterias asociadas a su exoesqueleto en un centro hospitalario de la ciudad de Villavicencio (Meta, Colombia). Métodos. Se realizaron capturas manuales de cucarachas en cocina, urgencias, UCI intermedia, consulta externa y neonatos. Los individuos colectados fueron sometidos a un aislamiento primario en caldo BHI, para luego pasar a medios sólidos (sangre y MacConkey). Se realizó identificación y antibiograma por método automatizado. Resultados. Se colectaron 24 ninfas y adultos de Blattella germánica. Se aisló e identificó Klebsiella pneumoniae con sensibilidad intermedia a meropenem (CMI 4) y resistencia a cefalosporinas (cefepima y cefuroxima) (>16), Proteus vulgaris con resistencia a cefalosporinas (ceftriaxona, cefuroxima) (CMI >16), Enterobacter cloacae con resistencia a cefalosporinas (cefoxitina, cefuroxima, ceftriaxona) (CMI > 16), Enterococcus faecium, Enterococcus rafinosus, Staphylococcus xylosus y Enterococcus faecalis. El 80% de las bacterias aisladas presentaron algún grado de resistencia a antibióticos. Conclusiones. Estos insectos podrían jugar un papel importante en la transmisión de las Infecciones asociadas a la atención en salud (IAAS). Debido a su presencia en hospitales y el reporte de IAAS y resistencia bacteriana en varios centros asistenciales en el Departamento del Meta, se hace necesario establecer la relación de estos insectos con estos eventos.

Objective. Identify the species of cockroaches and bacteria associated with their exoskeleton in a hospital in Villavicencio (Meta, Colombia). Methods. The cockroaches were captured manually in kitchen, emergency room, intermediate intensive care unit, outpatient service and newborn nursery. The collected individuals were subjected to a primary isolation in BHI broth, then move on to solid media (blood and MacConkey). Identification and sensitivity testing was performed by automated method. Results. 24 nymphs and adults ofBlattella germanica were collected. It was isolated and identified Klebsiellapneumoniae with intermediate susceptibility to meropenem (MIC 4) and resistance to cephalosporins (cefepime and cefuroxime) (> 16), Proteus vulgaris with cephalosporin resistance (Ceftriaxone, Cefuroxime) (MIC > 16), Enterobacter cloacae resistant to cephalosporins (cefoxitin, cefuroxime, ceftriaxone) (MIC > 16), Enterococcus faecium, Enterococcus rafinosus, Staphylococcus xylosus and Enterococcus faecalis. 80% of the isolated bacteria showed some degree of resistance to antibiotics. Results. These insects could play an important role in the transmission of health care associated infections (HCAI). Due to the presence of cockroaches in hospitals and the report of HCAI and bacterial resistance in several health centers in the Department of Meta, it is necessary to establish the relationship of these insects with these events.

Final report: impact evaluation of community-led total sanitation (CLTS) in rural Mali

Globally 2.5 billion people lack access to an improved sanitation facility; in Mali, only 15% of rural households use improved sanitation (JMP 2014). Community-led total sanitation (CLTS) uses participatory approaches to facilitate sustained behavior change to eliminate open defecation by mobilizing communities in order to achieve that goal. Although CLTS has been implemented in over 50 countries, there is a lack of rigorous and objective data on its outcomes in terms of sanitation and hygiene behavior, and on health impact such as diarrhea and child growth. This report covers the main findings of the impact evaluation of a community-led total sanitation (CLTS) campaign implemented by the government of Mali (Direction Nationale de l'Assainissement) with the technical and financial support of UNICEF. We conducted a cluster-randomized controlled trial among 121 villages randomly selected in the region of Koulikoro in order to evaluate health and non-health program impacts. Baseline data was collected during April-June 2011, the CLTS intervention program was implemented in 60 villages between September 2011 and June 2012, and follow-up data was collected in April-June 2013. A total of 4,532 households were enrolled at baseline and 5,206 were visited at follow up; 89% of baseline households (N=4,031) were successfully matched to a household at follow up. The primary outcomes and impacts presented in this report are reported for those households present at both baseline and follow up. The CLTS campaign was highly successful in increasing access to private latrines, improving the quality of latrines, and reducing self-reported open defecation. Access to a private latrine almost doubled among households in CLTS villages (coverage increased to 65% in CLTS villages compared to 35% in control villages). Self-reported open defecation rates fell by 70% among adult women and men, by 46% among older children (age 5-10), and by 50% among children under five. Children too young to use latrines were also more likely to use a child potty in CLTS villages. The program also increased perceived privacy and safety during defecation among women. These results were sustained over time. Observations by field staff support respondent-reported reductions in open defecation, use of cleaner latrines, and improved hygiene in CLTS villages. Latrines in the CLTS households were 3 times more likely to have soap present (PR: 3.17, 95% CI: 2.18-4.61) and 5 times more likely to have water present (PR: 5.3, 95% CI: 3.49-8.05). Latrines at CLTS households were more than twice as likely to have a cover over the hole of the pit (PR: 2.78, 95% CI: 2.24-3.44), and 31% less likely to have flies observed inside the latrine (PR: 0.79, 95% CI: 0.68-0.93). CLTS households were also half as likely to have piles of human feces observed in the courtyard (PR: 0.54, 95% CI: 0.37-0.79). Statistically significant impacts on child diarrheal or respiratory illness were not observed among children under five years of age when analyzing follow-up data only. It should be noted that even though randomization occurred after baseline data collection was complete and socio-economic characteristics were balanced across groups, most symptoms of diarrheal and respiratory illness were more prevalent in CLTS villages at baseline.

Gender and cooperation in children: experiments in Colombia and Sweden.

In this article we compare cooperation among Colombian and Swedish children aged 9-12. We illustrate the dynamics of the prisoner's dilemma in a new task that is easily understood by children and performed during a physical education class. We find no robust evidence of a difference in cooperation between Colombia and Sweden overall. However, Colombian girls cooperate less than Swedish girls. We also find indications that girls in Colombia are less cooperative than boys. Finally, there is also a tendency for children to be more cooperative with boys than with girls on average.

Markets, religion, community size, and the evolution of fairness and punishment.

Large-scale societies in which strangers regularly engage in mutually beneficial transactions are puzzling. The evolutionary mechanisms associated with kinship and reciprocity, which underpin much of primate sociality, do not readily extend to large unrelated groups. Theory suggests that the evolution of such societies may have required norms and institutions that sustain fairness in ephemeral exchanges. If that is true, then engagement in larger-scale institutions, such as markets and world religions, should be associated with greater fairness, and larger communities should punish unfairness more. Using three behavioral experiments administered across 15 diverse populations, we show that market integration (measured as the percentage of purchased calories) positively covaries with fairness while community size positively covaries with punishment. Participation in a world religion is associated with fairness, although not across all measures. These results suggest that modern prosociality is not solely the product of an innate psychology, but also reflects norms and institutions that have emerged over the course of human history.

Costly punishment across human societies.

Recent behavioral experiments aimed at understanding the evolutionary foundations of human cooperation have suggested that a willingness to engage in costly punishment, even in one-shot situations, may be part of human psychology and a key element in understanding our sociality. However, because most experiments have been confined to students in industrialized societies, generalizations of these insights to the species have necessarily been tentative. Here, experimental results from 15 diverse populations show that (i) all populations demonstrate some willingness to administer costly punishment as unequal behavior increases, (ii) the magnitude of this punishment varies substantially across populations, and (iii) costly punishment positively covaries with altruistic behavior across populations. These findings are consistent with models of the gene-culture coevolution of human altruism and further sharpen what any theory of human cooperation needs to explain.