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Why Shame Will Not Solve The Coronavirus Pandemic : Short Wave So much of dealing with the pandemic is about how each of us behaves in public. And it's easy to get mad when we see people not following public health guidelines, especially when it looks like they're having fun.

But Julia Marcus of Harvard Medical School says there are pitfalls to focusing only on what we can see, and more empathetic ways to create new social norms.

Julia's written about that for The Atlantic. Here's some of her recent work.

Email the show at shortwave@npr.org.

Short Wave

Why Shame Is A Bad Public Health Tool — Especially In A Pandemic

Why Shame Is A Bad Public Health Tool — Especially In A Pandemic

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Representative Rosa DeLauro holds a photograph from the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri on Memorial Day Weekend, during a June 4 hearing on Capitol Hill. Tasos Katopodis/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Tasos Katopodis/AFP via Getty Images

Representative Rosa DeLauro holds a photograph from the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri on Memorial Day Weekend, during a June 4 hearing on Capitol Hill.

Tasos Katopodis/AFP via Getty Images

So much of dealing with the pandemic is about how each of us behaves in public. And it's easy to get mad when we see people not following public health guidelines, especially when it looks like they're having fun.

But Julia Marcus of Harvard Medical School says there are pitfalls to focusing only on what we can see, and more empathetic ways to create new social norms.

Julia's written about that for The Atlantic. Here's some of her recent work.

Email the show at shortwave@npr.org.

This episode was produced by Brent Baughman, fact-checked by Rebecca Ramirez, and edited by Deb George.