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  • Freedom to Stay-at-Home? Countries Higher in Relational Mobility Showed Decreased Geographic Mobility at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Title: Freedom to Stay-at-Home? Countries Higher in Relational Mobility Showed Decreased Geographic Mobility at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic
In this paper, we examine whether relational mobility (RM) (the ability for individuals to voluntarily form and terminate relationships within a given social environment) on a country level related to individuals’ tendencies to restrict their movement following the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic and following the issuance of stay-at-home orders in their country. We use data on geographic mobility, composed of records of geolocation information provided via mobile phones, to examine changes in geographic mobility at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We show that individuals in countries with higher RM tended to decrease their geographic mobility more than those in countries with lower RM following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Similar results were found for wealth gross domestic product (GDP), but were independent of RM. These results suggest that individuals in countries with higher RM were more responsive to calls to reduce geographic mobility.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1752941
PAR ID:
10323129
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Frontiers in Psychology
Volume:
12
ISSN:
1664-1078
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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