scholarly journals Predictors of Social Distancing and Mask-Wearing Behavior: Panel Survey in Seven U.S. States

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Plamen Nikolov ◽  
Andreas Pape ◽  
Ozlem Tonguc ◽  
Charlotte Williams
Keyword(s):  
Risk Perception ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Individual Risk ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Demographic Groups ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
Economic Preference ◽  
Transmission Speed

This paper presents preliminary summary results from a longitudinal study of participants in seven U.S. states during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to standard socio-economic characteristics, we collect data on various economic preference parameters: time, risk, and social preferences, and risk perception biases. We pay special attention to predictors that are both important drivers of social distancing and are potentially malleable and susceptible to policy levers. We note three important findings: (1) demographic characteristics exert the largest influence on social distancing measures and mask-wearing, (2) we show that individual risk perception and cognitive biases exert a critical role in influencing the decision to adopt social distancing measures, (3) we identify important demographic groups that are most susceptible to changing their social distancing behaviors. These findings can help inform the design of policy interventions regarding targeting specific demographic groups, which can help reduce the transmission speed of the COVID-19 virus.

scholarly journals The Impact of Risk Perception on Social Distancing during the COVID-19 Pandemic in China

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (17) ◽  
pp. 6256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kefan Xie ◽  
Benbu Liang ◽  
Maxim A. Dulebenets ◽  
Yanlan Mei
Keyword(s):  
Risk Perception ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Safety Climate ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Equation Model ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Positive Correlation ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
The Impact

Social distancing is one of the most recommended policies worldwide to reduce diffusion risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on a risk management perspective, this study explores the mechanism of the risk perception effect on social distancing in order to improve individual physical distancing behavior. The data for this study were collected from 317 Chinese residents in May 2020 using an internet-based survey. A structural equation model (SEM) and hierarchical linear regression (HLR) analyses were conducted to examine all the considered research hypotheses. The results show that risk perception significantly affects perceived understanding and social distancing behaviors in a positive way. Perceived understanding has a significant positive correlation with social distancing behaviors and plays a mediating role in the relationship between risk perception and social distancing behaviors. Furthermore, safety climate positively predicts social distancing behaviors but lessens the positive correlation between risk perception and social distancing. Hence, these findings suggest effective management guidelines for successful implementation of the social distancing policies during the COVID-19 pandemic by emphasizing the critical role of risk perception, perceived understanding, and safety climate.

scholarly journals Risk Preferences and Risk Perception Affect the Acceptance of Digital Contact Tracing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Albrecht ◽  
Jana Bianca Jarecki ◽  
Dominik Meier ◽  
Jörg Rieskamp
Keyword(s):  
Risk Perception ◽  
Data Security ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Risk Preferences ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Individual Risk ◽  
Personal Health ◽  
Security Risk ◽  
Health Risk Perception

Digital contact-tracing applications (DCTAs) can control the spread of epidemics, like the COVID-19 pandemic. But people in Western societies fail to accept DCTAs. Understanding the low acceptance is key to policymakers who support DCTAs to avoid harsh nationwide lock-downs. In a preregistered study in a representative Swiss sample(N=757), we compare the role of individual risk perception, risk preferences, social preferences, and social values in the acceptance of and compliance with DCTA. The results show a low acceptance of DCTAs but high compliance with the measures recommended by DCTAs. Risk preferences and perceptions, but not social preferences, influenced accepting DCTAs; a high health risk perception and a low data-security risk perception increased acceptance. Additionally, supporting political measures, technical abilities, and understanding the DCTA functionality had large effects on accepting DCTAs. Therefore, we recommend highlighting personal health risks and clearly explaining DCTAs, focusing on data security, to enhance DCTA acceptance.

scholarly journals Risk preferences and risk perception affect the acceptance of digital contact tracing

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Albrecht ◽  
Jana B. Jarecki ◽  
Dominik S. Meier ◽  
Jörg Rieskamp
Keyword(s):  
Risk Perception ◽  
Data Security ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Risk Preferences ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Individual Risk ◽  
Security Risk ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
German Speaking

AbstractDigital contact-tracing applications (DCTAs) can help control the spread of epidemics, such as the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. But people in Western societies fail to install DCTAs. Understanding the low use rate is key for policy makers who support DCTAs as a way to avoid harsh nationwide lockdowns. In a preregistered study in a representative German-speaking Swiss sample (N = 757), the roles of individual risk perceptions, risk preferences, social preferences, and social values in the acceptance of and compliance with DCTA were compared. The results show a high compliance with the measures recommended by DCTAs but a comparatively low acceptance of DCTAs. Risk preferences and perceptions, but not social preferences, influenced accepting DCTAs; a high health-risk perception and a low data-security-risk perception increased acceptance. Additionally, support of political measures, technical abilities, and understanding the DCTA functionality had large effects on accepting DCTAs. Therefore, we recommend highlighting personal health risks and clearly explaining DCTAs, focusing on data security, to enhance DCTA acceptance.

scholarly journals Drinking Water Consumption Patterns: An Exploration of Risk Perception and Governance in Two First Nations Communities

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 6851
Author(s):  
Neal Spicer ◽  
Brenda Parlee ◽  
Molly Chisaakay ◽  
Doug Lamalice
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Risk Perception ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Water Consumption ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Bottled Water ◽  
Consumption Patterns ◽  
First Nation ◽  
Individual Risk

Many Indigenous communities across Canada suffer from the lack of access to clean drinking water; ensuring individuals and communities have safe water to drink either from their home or from their local environment requires the consideration of multiple factors including individual risk perception. In collaboration with local leaders, semi-structured interviews (n = 99) were conducted over a two-year period in the Dene Tha’ First Nation and Kátł’odeeche First Nation to unpack the issue of risk perception and its meaning to local community members. These local metrics of risk perception including smell, taste, safety, health fears and level of concern were then used to explore patterns in other data on drinking water consumption patterns and bottled water use. The results are consistent with previous research related to water insecurity and indicate that both communities consume more bottled water than the average Canadian. Results also varied by jurisdiction; those in Alberta indicated much higher levels of concern and a greater degree of bottled water consumption.

scholarly journals Assessing social preferences in reimbursement negotiations for new Pharmaceuticals in Oncology: an experimental design to analyse willingness to pay and willingness to accept

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominik J. Wettstein ◽  
Stefan Boes
Keyword(s):  
Willingness To Pay ◽  
Real World ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Standard Of Care ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Amazon Mechanical Turk ◽  
Patient Organisation ◽  
Patient Benefit

Abstract Background Price negotiations for specialty pharmaceuticals take place in a complex market setting. The determination of the added value of new treatments and the related societal willingness to pay are of increasing importance in policy reform debates. From a behavioural economics perspective, potential cognitive biases and other-regarding concerns affecting outcomes of reimbursement negotiations are of interest. An experimental setting to investigate social preferences in reimbursement negotiations for novel, oncology pharmaceuticals was used. Of interest were differences in social preferences caused by incremental changes of the patient outcome. Methods An online experiment was conducted in two separate runs (n = 202, n = 404) on the Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) platform. Populations were split into two (run one) and four (run two) equally sized treatment groups for hypothetical reimbursement decisions. Participants were randomly assigned to the role of a public price regulator for pharmaceuticals (buyer) or a representative of a pharmaceutical company (seller). In run two, role groups were further split into two different price magnitude framings (“real world” vs unconverted “real payoff” prices). Decisions had real monetary effects on other participants (in the role of premium payers or investors) and via charitable donations to a patient organisation (patient benefit). Results 56 (run one) and 59 (run two) percent of participants stated strictly monotone preferences for incremental patient benefit. The mean incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) against standard of care (SoC) was higher than the initial ICER of the SoC against no care. Regulators stated lower reservation prices in the “real world” prices group compared to their colleagues in the unconverted payoff group. No price group showed any reluctance to trade. Overall, regulators rated the relevance of the patient for their decision higher and the relevance of their own role lower compared to sellers. Conclusions The price magnitude of current oncology treatments affects stated preferences for incremental survival, and assigned responsibilities lead to different opinions on the relevance of affected stakeholders. The design is useful to further assess effects of reimbursement negotiations on societal outcomes like affordability (cost) or availability (access) of new pharmaceuticals and test behavioural policy interventions.

scholarly journals Get Close to the Robot: The Effect of Risk Perception of COVID-19 Pandemic on Customer–Robot Engagement

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 6314
Author(s):  
Jifei Wu ◽  
Xiangyun Zhang ◽  
Yimin Zhu ◽  
Grace Fang Yu-Buck
Keyword(s):  
Risk Perception ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Hospitality Industry ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Mediating Effect ◽  
Service Robots ◽  
Industry Analysis ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Risk Seeking ◽  
Positive Effect

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on customer–robot engagement in the Chinese hospitality industry. Analysis of a sample of 589 customers using service robots demonstrated that the perceived risk of COVID-19 has a positive influence on customer–robot engagement. The positive effect is mediated by social distancing and moderated by attitudes towards risk. Specifically, the mediating effect of social distancing between the perceived risk of COVID-19 and customer–robot engagement is stronger for risk-avoiding (vs. risk-seeking) customers. Our results provide insights for hotels when they employ service robots to cope with the shock of COVID-19 pandemic.

Disparity and Dynamics of Social Distancing Behaviors in Japan: An Investigation of mobile phone mobility data (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeyu Lyu ◽  
Hiroki Takikawa
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Demographic Groups ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Mobility Data ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government ◽  
Over Time

BACKGROUND The availability of large-scale and fine-grained aggregated mobility data has allowed researchers to observe the dynamic of social distancing behaviors at high spatial and temporal resolutions. Despite the increasing attentions paid to this research agenda, limited studies have focused on the demographic factors related to mobility and the dynamics of social distancing behaviors has not been fully investigated. OBJECTIVE This study aims to assist in the design and implementation of public health policies by exploring the social distancing behaviors among various demographic groups over time. METHODS We combined several data sources, including mobile tracking data and geographical statistics, to estimate visiting population of entertainment venues across demographic groups, which can be considered as the proxy of social distancing behaviors. Then, we employed time series analyze methods to investigate how voluntary and policy-induced social distancing behaviors shift over time across demographic groups. RESULTS Our findings demonstrate distinct patterns of social distancing behaviors and their dynamics across age groups. The population in the entertainment venues comprised mainly of individuals aged 20–40 years, while according to the dynamics of the mobility index and the policy-induced behavior, among the age groups, the extent of reduction of the frequency of visiting entertainment venues during the pandemic was generally the highest among younger individuals. Also, our results indicate the importance of implementing the social distancing policy promptly to limit the spread of the COVID-19 infection. However, it should be noticed that although the policy intervention during the second wave in Japan appeared to increase the awareness of the severity of the pandemic and concerns regarding COVID-19, its direct impact has been largely decreased could only last for a short time. CONCLUSIONS At the time we wrote this paper, in Japan, the number of daily confirmed cases was continuously increasing. Thus, this study provides a timely reference for decision makers about the current situation of policy-induced compliance behaviors. On the one hand, age-dependent disparity requires target mitigation strategies to increase the intention of elderly individuals to adopt mobility restriction behaviors. On the other hand, considering the decreasing impact of self-restriction recommendations, the government should employ policy interventions that limit the resurgence of cases, especially by imposing stronger, stricter social distancing interventions, as they are necessary to promote social distancing behaviors and mitigate the transmission of COVID-19. CLINICALTRIAL None

Impacts of Social Distancing on Pedestrian Behavior and Risk Perception

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 1302-1306
Author(s):  
Kyra B. Phillips ◽  
Kelly N. Byrne ◽  
Branden S. Kolarik ◽  
Audra K. Krake ◽  
Young C. Bui ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Risk Perception ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
The United States ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
Pedestrian Behavior ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Over Time

Since COVID-19 transmission accelerated in the United States in March 2020, guidelines have recommended that individuals wear masks and limit close contact by remaining at least six feet away from others, even while outdoors. Such behavior is important to help slow the spread of the global pandemic; however, it may require pedestrians to make critical decisions about entering a roadway in order to avoid others, potentially creating hazardous situations for both themselves and for drivers. In this survey study, we found that while overall patterns of self-reported pedestrian activity remained largely consistent over time, participants indicated increased willingness to enter active roadways when encountering unmasked pedestrians since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Participants also rated the risks of encountering unmasked pedestrians as greater than those associated with entering a street, though the perceived risk of passing an unmasked pedestrian on the sidewalk decreased over time.

scholarly journals Integrating public risk perception into formal natural hazard risk assessment

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 471-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Th. Plattner ◽  
T. Plapp ◽  
B. Hebel
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Risk Perception ◽  
Risk Evaluation ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Individual Risk ◽  
Affecting Factors ◽  
Plausibility Check ◽  
Novel Approach

Abstract. An urgent need to take perception into account for risk assessment has been pointed out by relevant literature, its impact in terms of risk-related behaviour by individuals is obvious. This study represents an effort to overcome the broadly discussed question of whether risk perception is quantifiable or not by proposing a still simple but applicable methodology. A novel approach is elaborated to obtain a more accurate and comprehensive quantification of risk in comparison to present formal risk evaluation practice. A consideration of relevant factors enables a explicit quantification of individual risk perception and evaluation. The model approach integrates the effective individual risk reff and a weighted mean of relevant perception affecting factors PAF. The relevant PAF cover voluntariness of risk-taking, individual reducibility of risk, knowledge and experience, endangerment, subjective damage rating and subjective recurrence frequency perception. The approach assigns an individual weight to each PAF to represent its impact magnitude. The quantification of these weights is target-group-dependent (e.g. experts, laypersons) and may be effected by psychometric methods. The novel approach is subject to a plausibility check using data from an expert-workshop. A first model application is conducted by means of data of an empirical risk perception study in Western Germany to deduce PAF and weight quantification as well as to confirm and evaluate model applicbility and flexibility. Main fields of application will be a quantification of risk perception by individual persons in a formal and technical way e.g. for the purpose of risk communication issues in illustrating differing perspectives of experts and non-experts. For decision making processes this model will have to be applied with caution, since it is by definition not designed to quantify risk acceptance or risk evaluation. The approach may well explain how risk perception differs, but not why it differs. The formal model generates only "snap shots" and considers neither the socio-cultural nor the historical context of risk perception, since it is a highly individualistic and non-contextual approach.

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