RAPID: Societal Trust and Health amidst COVID-19, and an Evaluation Framework for the Societal Experts Action Network (SEAN)

American University, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

Too often, decision-makers in government and business have been unable to extract actionable information from scientific studies. As a result, the potential public benefit from that knowledge is blunted. The Societal Experts Action Network (SEAN) is a unique effort to bridge that gap and improve transmission of actionable insights from the social, behavioral, and economic (SBE) sciences to decision-makers who can benefit from the knowledge. SEAN is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) focus on COVID-19. In coordination with the NASEM Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats, SEAN provides SBE data and recommendations on social, behavioral, and economic (SBE) matters to decision-makers and the public. One of SEAN’s key goals is to rapidly gather and communicate actionable scientific evidence to public officials and other leaders who are managing the pandemic and working toward recovery. This project will 1) utilize survey data gathered under SEAN’s auspices to examine societal trust and its relationships to health outcomes, and 2) create a framework for an evaluative assessment of SEAN. It will create original scientific evidence using COVID-19-related survey data and will provide an evaluation of the effectiveness and impact of SEAN’s COVID-19-related communication activities. The first part of this project will analyze survey data associated with the SEAN COVID-19 survey archive to understand the critical role that trust in authorities (medical, scientific, government, media) plays in critical health behaviors by members of the public. COVID-19 represents a grave threat to America’s public health and the well-being of its populace. It is predicted that government officials at the federal, state and local levels who are trusted by members of society to inform them about COVID-19 play a large role in the lay public’s behavioral responses to the disease and, ultimately, their positive health outcomes. In the second part of this project, the research team will work with SEAN leadership, to plan a thorough, external evaluation of SEAN. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.