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Investigating Italian Citizens’ Attitudes Towards Immuni, the Italian Contact Tracing App

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Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2021 (INTERACT 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 12933))

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Abstract

This research investigates Italian citizens’ attitudes towards the contact tracing app Immuni, promoted by the Italian government to track the spread of Covid19 and prevent possible future out-breaks. More specifically, this paper tries to uncover the factors that have motivated individuals to uptake the app or fail to do so. We have used a variety of qualitative methods: firstly, a virtual ethnography has been conducted, analyzing thematically 3013 tweets with the hashtag #Immuni. To further investigate the motivation behind either the adoption or the refusal of Immuni, twenty semi-structured interviews have been carried out with potential and actual users. A doctor and a health official have been also interviewed as secondary users. The results show that multiple factors shape users’ attitudes towards Immuni and influence their willingness to adopt it. The most relevant have to do with the perceived benefits, perceived barriers, perceived efficacy of the app and the cues to action. The usability of the overall app is also discussed with a focus on some of the key issues identified by the users.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    interview(24/10/2020).

  2. 2.

    interview(26/10/2020).

  3. 3.

    tweet(10/10/2020).

  4. 4.

    interview(23/10/2020).

  5. 5.

    interview(22/10/2020).

  6. 6.

    interview(21/10/2020).

  7. 7.

    interview(22/10/2020).

  8. 8.

    interview (21/10/2020).

  9. 9.

    interview(5/11/2020).

  10. 10.

    tweet(10/10/2020).

  11. 11.

    interview(26/10/2020).

  12. 12.

    interview(25/10/2020).

  13. 13.

    interview(21/10/2020).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Trento, 38068, Rovereto, TN, Italy

    Cristina Bosco & Martina Cvajner

Authors
  1. Cristina Bosco
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  2. Martina Cvajner
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cristina Bosco .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, Polytechnic University of Bari, Bari, Italy

    Carmelo Ardito

  2. Computer Science Department, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

    Rosa Lanzilotti

  3. Computer Science Department, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Alessio Malizia

  4. Department of Computer Science, University of York, York, UK

    Helen Petrie

  5. Computer Science Department, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

    Antonio Piccinno

  6. Computer Science Department, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

    Giuseppe Desolda

  7. Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA, USA

    Kori Inkpen

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Bosco, C., Cvajner, M. (2021). Investigating Italian Citizens’ Attitudes Towards Immuni, the Italian Contact Tracing App. In: Ardito, C., et al. Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2021. INTERACT 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12933. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85616-8_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85616-8_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-85615-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-85616-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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