Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has led us to witness behavior change in pursuit of collective goals on an unprecedented global scale. All individuals were asked to make an effort, with the personal costs varying in magnitude. Behavioral sciences, which have increasingly become part of the public policy toolbox of many countries, proved critical in supporting this change. This chapter highlights where and how applied behavioral science was most relevant to the pandemic policy response, describes some concrete examples of applications, and gives a flavor of how these varied around the world. The focus is on examining features that enhance cooperation, behavioral levers that help promote health preventive behavior and vaccination, challenges in scientific communication, and how to combat misinformation. Behavioral science was widely used in some countries during the COVID-19 pandemic and not in others. Some applications were successful, but others were not. Reflecting on why and how it contributed to the pandemic response is important as the challenges the world faces in this century will require global cooperation and widespread behavior change.
References
Abaluck J, Kwong LH, Styczynski A, Haque A, Kabir MA, Bates-Jefferys E, Crawford E, Benjamin-Chung J, Benhachmi S, Raihan S, Rahman S (2021) Normalizing community mask-wearing: a cluster randomized trial in Bangladesh. National Bureau of Economic Research working paper no. 28734
Aktipis CA (2004) Know when to walk away: contingent movement and the evolution of cooperation. J Theor Biol 231(2):249–260
Allington D, McAndrew S, Moxham-Hall VL, Duffy B (2021) Media usage predicts intention to be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 in the US and the UK. Vaccine 39(18):2595–2603
Anderson RM, Vegvari C, Truscott J, Collyer BS (2020) Challenges in creating herd immunity to SARS-CoV-2 infection by mass vaccination. Lancet 396(10263):1614–1616
Axelrod R, Hamilton WD (1981) The evolution of cooperation. Science 211(4489):1390–1396
Bago B et al (2020) Fake news, fast and slow: deliberation reduces belief in false (but not true) news headlines. J Exp Psychol Gen 149:1608–1613
Ball P (2021) The lightning-fast quest for COVID vaccines — and what it means for other diseases. Nature 589:16–18
Banker S, Park J (2020) Evaluating prosocial COVID-19 messaging frames: evidence from a field study on Facebook. Judgm Decis Mak 15(6):1037–1043
Barari S, Caria S, Davola A, Falco P, Fetzer T, Fiorin S, … Slepoi FR (2020) Evaluating COVID-19 public health messaging in Italy: self-reported compliance and growing mental health concerns. MedRxiv 20042820
Barbey AK, Sloman SA (2007) Base-rate respect: from ecological rationality to dual processes. Behav Brain Sci 30(3):241–254
Bar-Hillel M (1980) The base-rate fallacy in probability judgments. Acta Psychol 44(3):211–233
Basol M, Roozenbeek J, Berriche M, Uenal F, McClanahan WP, Linden SVD (2021) Towards psychological herd immunity: cross-cultural evidence for two prebunking interventions against COVID-19 misinformation. Big Data Soc 8(1):20539517211013868
BC BIG (2020) The first four years. Cultivating a practice of behavioural insights in the BC Public Service. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/british-columbians-our-governments/services-policies-for-government/service-experience-digital-delivery/behavioural-insights/bc_big_the_first_four_years.pdf. Last accessed 12 Oct 2022
Behavioural Insights Team (2014) EAST: Four simple ways to apply behavioural insights. Behavioural Insights Team, London
Belton C, Julienne H, Timmons S, Barjakova M, Lavin C, McGowan F, Lunn PD (2020) Public expectations for lifting Covid-19 restrictions. ESRI Survey and Statistical Report Series, 88
BEST (2020) Eliciting behavior change of citizens to combat COVID-19 in Japan through use of behavioral insights. Behavioural Sciences Team, Ministry of the Environment, Japan. http://www.env.go.jp/earth/ondanka/nudge/BI_COVID-19.pdf. Last accessed 12 Oct 2022
Blanken T, Tanis C, Nauta F, Dablander F, Zijlstra B, Bouten R, Oostvogel Q, Boersma M, van der Steenhoven M, van Harreveld F, Borsboom D (2020) Smart Distance Lab: a new methodology for assessing social distancing interventions. OSF Pre-prints https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/mjg2f
Bokemper SE, Cucciniello M, Rotesi T, Pin P, Malik AA, Willebrand K, … Melegaro A (2021) Experimental evidence that changing beliefs about mask efficacy and social norms increase mask wearing for COVID-19 risk reduction: results from the United States and Italy. PLoS One 16(10):e0258282
Bolton L (2021) WASH in schools for student return during the COVID-19 pandemic. K4D helpdesk report 969. Institute of Development Studies, Brighton. https://doi.org/10.19088/K4D.2021.024
Bos B, Drupp MA, Meya JN, Quaas MF (2020) Moral suasion and the private provision of public goods: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic. Environ Resour Econ 76(4):1117–1138
Bronstein MV, Pennycook G, Bear A, Rand DG, Cannon TD (2019) Belief in fake news is associated with delusionality, dogmatism, religious fundamentalism, and reduced analytic thinking. J Appl Res Mem Cogn 8(1):108–117
Brown G, Susskind D (2020) International cooperation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Oxf Rev Econ Policy 36(Suppl 1):S64–S76
Bryanov K, Vziatysheva V (2021) Determinants of individuals’ belief in fake news: a scoping review determinants of belief in fake news. PLoS One 16(6):e0253717
Capraro V, Barcelo H (2020) The effect of messaging and gender on intentions to wear a face covering to slow down COVID-19 transmission. J Behav Econ Policy 4(Special issue 2):45–55
Capraro V, Barcelo H (2021) Telling people to “rely on their reasoning” increases intentions to wear a face covering to slow down COVID-19 transmission. Appl Cogn Psychol 35(3):693–699
Cascini F, Pantovic A, Al-Ajlouni Y, Failla G, Ricciardi W (2021) Attitudes, acceptance and hesitancy among the general population worldwide to receive the COVID-19 vaccines and their contributing factors: a systematic review. EClinicalMedicine 40:101113
Cato S, Iida T, Ishida K, Ito A, McElwain KM, Shoji M (2020) Social distancing as a public good under the COVID-19 pandemic. Public Health 188:51–53
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2021) COVID-19 vaccination field guide: 12 strategies for your community. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta
Ceylan M, Hayran C (2021) Message framing effects on individuals’ social distancing and helping behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic. Front Psychol 12(579):164
Chaudhuri A (2011) Sustaining cooperation in laboratory public goods experiments: a selective survey of the literature. Exp Econ 14:47–83
Chen XK, Na JC, Tan LKW, Chong M, Choy M (2022) Exploring how online responses change in response to debunking messages about COVID-19 on WhatsApp. Online Information Review 46(6):1184–1204
Chutiphimon H, Thipsunate A, Cherdchim A, Boonyaphak B, Vithayasirikul P, Choothong P, Vichathai S, Ngamchaliew P, Vichitkunakorn P (2020) Effectiveness of innovation media for improving physical distancing compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic: a quasi-experiment in Thailand. Int J Environ Res Public Health 17(22):8535
Cialdini RB, Kallgren CA, Reno RR (1991) A focus theory of normative conduct: a theoretical refinement and reevaluation of the role of norms in human behaviour. Adv Exp Soc Psychol 24:201–234
Cohen J, Kupferschmidt K (2020) Countries test tactics in “war” against COVID-19. Science 367(6484):1287–1288
Compton J (2013) Inoculation theory. In: The SAGE handbook of persuasion: developments in theory and practice, vol 2. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, pp 220–237
Cucchiarini V, Caravona L, Macchi L, Perlino FL, Viale R (2021) Behavioral changes after the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy. Front Psychol 12:617315
Dai H, Saccardo S, Han MA, Roh L, Raja N, Vangala S, … Croymans DM (2021) Behavioural nudges increase COVID-19 vaccinations. Nature 597(7876):404–409. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03843-2
Dyer O (2020) Covid-19: trump sought to buy vaccine developer exclusively for US, say German officials. BMJ 368:m1100
Evans JSB, Frankish KE (2009) In two minds: dual processes and beyond. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK
Falco P, Zaccagni S (2021) Promoting social distancing in a pandemic: beyond good intentions. PLoS One 16(12):e0260457
Fancourt D, Steptoe A, Wright L (2020) The Cummings effect: politics, trust, and behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lancet 396(10249):464–465
Fazio LK, Rand DG, Pennycook G (2019) Repetition increases perceived truth equally for plausible and implausible statements. Psychon Bull Rev 26(5):1705–1710
Fehr E, Schurtenberger I (2018) Normative foundations of human cooperation. Nat Hum Behav 2(7):458–468
Fellner G, Sausgruber R, Traxler C (2013) Testing enforcement strategies in the field: threat, moral appeal and social information. J Eur Econ Assoc 11(3):634–660
Finucane ML, Alhakami A, Slovic P, Johnson SM (2000) The affect heuristic in judgments of risks and benefits. J Behav Decis Mak 13(1):1–17
Fischhoff B (2003) Hindsight ≠ foresight: the effect of outcome knowledge on judgment under uncertainty. BMJ Qual Saf 12(4):304–311
Frederick S, Loewenstein G, O’Donoghue T (2002) Time discounting and time preference: a critical review. J Econ Lit 40(2):351–401
Freeman D, Loe BS, Chadwick A, Vaccari C, Waite F, Rosebrock L et al (2020) COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the UK: the Oxford coronavirus explanations, attitudes, and narratives survey (Oceans) II. Psychol Med 2020:1–15
Freeman D, Loe BS, Yu L-M, Freeman J, Chadwick A, Vaccari C, … Lambe S (2021) Effects of different types of written vaccination information on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the UK (OCEANS-III): a single-blind, parallel-group, randomised controlled trial. Lancet Public Health 6(6):e416–e427. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(21)00096-7
Gallagher KM, Updegraff JA (2012) Health message framing effects on attitudes, intentions, and behaviour: a meta-analytic review. Ann Behav Med 43(1):101–116
Gelfert A (2018) Fake news: a definition. Informal Log 38(1):84–117
Gigerenzer G (2014) Should patients listen to how doctors frame messages? BMJ 349:g7091
Gigerenzer G, Hoffrage U (1995) How to improve Bayesian reasoning without instruction: frequency formats. Psychol Rev 102(4):684
Glăveanu VP (2017) Psychology in the post-truth era. Eur J Psychol 13(3):375
Goff M (2022) Nudging for hand hygiene: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Thesis, Georgia State University
Gollwitzer PM, Sheeran P (2006) Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes. Adv Exp Soc Psychol 38:69–120
Graham-Harrison E (2020) Coronavirus: how Asian countries acted while the west dithered. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/21/coronavirus-asia-acted-west-dithered-hong-kong-taiwan-europe/. Last accessed 12 Oct 2022
Greif A (2006) Institutions and the path to the modern economy: lessons from medieval trade. Cambridge University Press, New York
Hale T, Petherick A, Phillips T, Webster S (2020) Variation in government responses to COVID-19. Blavatnik School of Government working paper 2020/032
Hallsworth M (2020) How to stop touching our faces in the wake of the coronavirus. The Behavioural Insights Team, 5 May. https://www.bi.team/blogs/how-to-stop-touching-our-faces-in-the-wake-of-the-coronavirus/. Last accessed 12 Oct 2022
Hamm JA, Smidt C, Mayer RC (2019) Understanding the psychological nature and mechanisms of political trust. PLoS One 14(5):e0215835
Harring N, Jagers SC, Löfgren Å (2021) COVID-19: large-scale collective action, government intervention, and the importance of trust. World Dev 138(105):236
Harvey N (2020) Behavioural fatigue: real phenomenon, naïve construct, or policy contrivance? Front Psychol 11:589892
Heath RL, Lee J, Ni L (2009) Crisis and risk approaches to emergency management planning and communication: the role of similarity and sensitivity. J Public Relat Res 21(2):123–141
Henley J (2020) Critics question Swedish approach as coronavirus death toll reaches 1,000. Guardian, 15 April 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/15/sweden-coronavirus-death-toll-reaches-1000. Last accessed 12 Oct 2022
Hofstede G (2001) Culture’s consequences: comparing values, behaviors, institutions and organizations across nations. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks
Huang HC, Le N, Battle M, Villasenor JM, Maule L (2021) Nudging handwashing among primary school students in the Philippines: evidence from a cluster randomized trial. Am J Trop Med Hyg 105(6):1806–1815
Hume S, John P, Sanders M, Stockdale E (2021) Nudge in the time of coronavirus: the compliance to behavioural messages during crisis. Available at SSRN 3644165
International Covid-19 Behavioural Insights and Policy Group (2021) COVID-19 vaccination confidence, access and roll-out: global lessons from the field using behavioural science UN Innovation Network Report, www.uninnovation.network
Jagers SC, Harring N, Löfgren Å, Sjöstedt M, Alpizar F, Brülde B, … Steffen W (2020) On the preconditions for large-scale collective action. Ambio 49(7):1282–1296
Johnson BB, Slovic P (1995) Presenting uncertainty in health risk assessment: initial studies of its effects on risk perception and trust. Risk Anal 15(4):485–494
Johnson T, Dawes C, Fowler J, Smirnov O (2020) Slowing COVID-19 transmission as a social dilemma: lessons for government officials from interdisciplinary research on cooperation. J Behav Public Adm 3(1):150
Julienne H, Lavin C, Belton CA, Barjaková M, Timmons S, Lunn PD (2022) Behavioral pre-testing of COVID Tracker, Ireland’s contact-tracing app. J Behav Public Adm 5(1):1–17
Kahneman D (2011) Thinking, fast and slow. Penguin Books, London
Kahneman D, Krueger AB, Schkade DA, Schwarz N, Stone AA (2004) A survey method for characterizing daily life experience: the day reconstruction method. Science 306(5702):1776–1780
Kass-Hout TA, Alhinnawi H (2013) Social media in public health. Br Med Bull 108(1):5–24
Keller SN, Honea JC, Ollivant R (2021) How social media comments inform the promotion of mask-wearing and other COVID-19 prevention strategies. Int J Environ Res Public Health 18(11):5624
Kimm MS (2020) Seoul’s radical experiment in digital contact tracing. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/seouls-radical-experiment-in-digital-contact-tracing. Last accessed 12 Oct 2022
Kozyreva A, Lewandowsky S, Hertwig R (2020) Citizens versus the Internet: confronting digital challenges with cognitive tools. Psychol Sci Public Interest 21(3):103–156
Lades LK, Laffan K, Daly M, Delaney L (2020) Daily emotional well‐being during the COVID‐19 pandemic. British J Health Psychol 25(4):902–911
Lang A (2000) The limited capacity model of mediated message processing. J Commun 50(1):46–70
Lankton NK, McKnight DH, Tripp J (2015) Technology, humanness, and trust: rethinking trust in technology. J Assoc Inf Syst 16(10):Article 1
Lawton G (2020) Best behaviour. New Sci 246(3281):38–42
Lazarus JV, Ratzan SC, Palayew A, Gostin LO, Larson HJ, Rabin K et al (2021) A global survey of potential acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine. Nat Med 27(2):225–228
Ledyard O (1995) Public goods: some experimental results. In: Handbook of Experimental Economics, Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp 111–194
Lerner JS, Gonzalez RM, Small DA, Fischhoff B (2003) Effects of fear and anger on perceived risks of terrorism: a national field experiment. Psychol Sci 14(2):144–150
Lewandowsky S, Cook J, Fay N, Gignac GE (2019) Science by social media: attitudes towards climate change are mediated by perceived social consensus. Mem Cogn 47:1445–1456
Liebst LS, Ejbye-Ernst P, Bruin M, Thomas J, Lindegaard MR (2021) Mask-wearing and social distancing: evidence from a video-observational and natural-experimental study of public space behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic Pre-print available at Research Square https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-311669/v1
Lovari A, Righetti N (2020) La comunicazione pubblica della salute tra infodemia e fake news: il ruolo della pagina Facebook del Ministero della Salute nella sfida social al Covid-19. https://rosa.uniroma1.it/rosa03/mediascapes/article/view/17079. Last accessed 12 Oct 2022
Luckman A, Zeitoun H, Isoni A, Loomes G, Vlaev I, Powdthavee N, Read D (2021) Risk compensation during COVID-19: the impact of face mask usage on social distancing. J Exp Psychol Appl 27(4):722
Lunn PD, Belton CA, Lavin C, McGowan FP, Timmons S, Robertson DA (2020a) Using behavioral science to help fight the coronavirus. J Behav Public Adm 3(1):1–15
Lunn PD, Timmons S, Barjaková M, Belton CA, Julienne H, Lavin C (2020b) Motivating social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Soc Sci Med 265(113):478
Lunn PD, Timmons S, Julienne H, Belton CA, Barjaková M, Lavin C, McGowan FP (2021) Using decision aids to support self-isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychol Health 36:195–213
Macchi L (2000) Partitive formulation of information in probabilistic problems: beyond heuristics and frequency format explanations. Organ Behav Hum Decis Process 82(2):217–236
Marchiori M (2020) COVID-19 and the social distancing paradox: dangers and solutions. Preprint arXiv:2005.12446
McGlynn J, Baryshevtsev M, Dayton ZA (2020) Misinformation more likely to use non-specific authority references: Twitter analysis of two COVID-19 myths. HKS Misinf Rev 1(3):14
McGuire WJ (1964) Some contemporary approaches. In Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 1:191–229
McKnight DH, Carter M, Thatcher BJ, Clay PF (2011) Trust in a specific technology: an investigation of its components and measures. ACM Trans Manag Inf Syst 2(2):12–32
Michie S, Van Stralen MM, West R (2011) The behaviour change wheel: a new method for characterising and designing behaviour change interventions. Implement Sci 6(1):1–12
Milkman KL, Patel MS, Gandhi L, Graci HN, Gromet DM, Ho H et al (2021) A megastudy of text-based nudges encouraging patients to get vaccinated at an upcoming doctor’s appointment. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 118(20):e2101165118
Monti F, Frasca F, Eynard D, Mannion D, Bronstein MM (2019) Fake news detection on social media using geometric deep learning. Preprint arXiv:1902.06673
Moriwaki D, Harada S, Schneider J, Hoshino T (2020) Nudging preventive behaviours in COVID-19 crisis: a large scale RCT using smartphone advertising (no. 2020-021). Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University, Tokyo
Morley J, Cowls J, Taddeo M, Floridi L (2020) Ethical guidelines for COVID-19 tracing apps. Nature 582(7810):29–31
Motta M, Sylvester S, Callaghan T, Lunz-Trujillo K (2021) Encouraging COVID-19 vaccine uptake through effective health communication. Front Polit Sci 3:630133
Murphy R (2020) Using behavioural science to improve hand hygiene in workplaces and public places. Research Services and Policy Unit, Department of Health, Ireland
Nicas M, Best D (2008) A study quantifying the hand-to-face contact rate and its potential application to predicting respiratory tract infection. J Occup Environ Hyg 5(6):347–352
Nieminen S, Rapeli L (2019) Fighting misperceptions and doubting journalists’ objectivity: a review of fact-checking literature. Polit Stud Rev 17:296–309
OECD (2020a) Combatting Covid-19 disinformation on online platforms. https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/combatting-covid-19-disinformation-on-online-platforms-d854ec48/. Last accessed 12 Oct 2022
OECD (2020b) Transparency, communication and trust: the role of public communication in responding to the wave of disinformation about the new coronavirus. https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/transparency-communication-and-trust-the-role-of-public-communication-in-responding-to-the-wave-of-disinformation-about-the-new-coronavirus-bef7ad6e/. Last accessed 12 Oct 2022
OECD (2020c) Regulatory policy and COVID-19: behavioural insights for fast-paced decision making. https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/regulatory-policy-and-covid-19-behavioural-insights-for-fast-paced-decision-making-7a521805/. Last accessed 12 Oct 2022
Olson M (1965) The logic of collective action: public goods and the theory of groups. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Ostrom E (2000) Collective action and the evolution of social norms. J Econ Perspect 14:137–158
Ostrom E (2010) Polycentric systems for coping with collective action and global environmental change. Glob Environ Change 20:550–557
Ostrom E, Walker J,Gardner, R (1992) Covenants with and without a sword: Self-governance is possible. Am Pol Sci Rev 86(2):404–417
Pachur T, Hertwig R, Steinmann F (2012) How do people judge risks: availability heuristic, affect heuristic, or both? J Exp Psychol Appl 18(3):314–330
PAHO (2020) Understanding the infodemic and misinformation in the fight against Covid19. Pan American Health Organization, World Health Organization. Factsheet N.5. https://iris.paho.org/handle/10665.2/52052. Last accessed 12 Oct 2022
Palinko O, Fredskild TU, Andersen ET, Heidtmann C, Sørensen AR, Junge RP, … Krüger N (2021) A robotic interface for motivating and educating proper hand sanitization using speech and gaze interaction. In: 2021 30th IEEE international conference on robot & human interactive communication (RO-MAN). IEEE, pp 763–769
Pennycook G, Rand DG (2019) Lazy, not biased: susceptibility to partisan fake news is better explained by lack of reasoning than by motivated reasoning. Cognition 188:39–50
Pennycook G, Rand DG (2020) Who falls for fake news? The roles of bullshit receptivity, overclaiming, familiarity, and analytic thinking. J Pers 88(2):185–200
Pennycook G, Rand DG (2021) The psychology of fake news. Trends Cogn Sci 25(5):388–402
Pennycook G, Epstein Z, Mosleh M, Arechar AA, Eckles D, Rand DG (2021) Shifting attention to accuracy can reduce misinformation online. Nature 592(7855):590–595
Peters GJY, Ruiter RAC, ten Hoor GA, Kessels LTE, Kok G (2018) Towards consensus on fear appeals: a rejoinder to the commentaries on Kok, Peters, Kessels, ten Hoor, and Ruiter (2018). Health Psychol Rev 12(2):151–156
Pfattheicher S, Nockur L, Böhm R, Sassenrath C, Petersen M (2020) The emotional path to action: empathy promotes physical distancing and wearing face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychol Sci 31:1363–1373
Pornpitakpan C (2004) The persuasiveness of source credibility: a critical review of five decades’ evidence. J Appl Soc Psychol 34(2):243–281
Redelmeier DA, Thaler RH (2021) One nudge for hand hygiene. BMJ Innov 7(2):25
Reñosa MDC, Landicho J, Wachinger J, Dalglish SL, Bärnighausen K, Bärnighausen T, McMahon SA (2021) Nudging toward vaccination: a systematic review. BMJ Glob Health 6(9):e006237. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006237
Riemer K, Ciriello R, Peter S, Schlagwein D (2020) Digital contact-tracing adoption in the COVID-19 pandemic: IT governance for collective action at the societal level. Eur J Inf Syst 29(6):731–745
Ritchie H, Mathieu E, Rodés-Guirao L, Appel C, Giattino C, Ortiz-Ospina E et al (2021) Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus. Updated 16 Dec 2021
Robertson DA, Mohr KS, Barjaková M, Lunn PD (2021) A lack of perceived benefits and a gap in knowledge distinguish the vaccine hesitant from vaccine accepting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychol Med:1–4. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291721003743
Robertson DA, Mohr KS, Barjaková M, Lunn PD (2022) Experimental pre-tests of public health communications on the COVID-19 vaccine: a null finding for medical endorsement, risk and altruism. Vaccine 40(27):3788–3796
Roozenbeek J, Van der Linden S (2019) Fake news game confers psychological resistance against online misinformation. Palgrave Commun 5(1):1–10
Rothkopf DJ (2003) When the buzz bites back. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2003/05/11/when-the-buzz-bites-back/bc8cd84f-cab6-4648-bf58-0277261af6cd/. Last accessed 12 Oct 2022
Russo A (2020) Fake news ai tempi del Covid-19. L’uso del fact checking per contrastare l’epidemia della disinformazione. Fuori Luogo. Rivista Di Sociologia Del Territorio, Turismo, Tecnologia 7(1):89–95
Sabat I, Neuman-Böhme S, Varghese NE, Barros PP, Brouwer W, van Exel J, … Stargardt T (2020) United but divided: policy responses and people’s perceptions in the EU during the COVID-19 outbreak. Health Policy 124(9):909–918
Samuelson W, Zeckhauser R (1988) Status quo bias in decision making. J Risk Uncertain 1(1):7–59
Sanders M, Stockdale E, Hume S, John P (2021) Loss aversion fails to replicate in the coronavirus pandemic: evidence from an online experiment. Econ Lett 199(109):433
Santos HC, Goren A, Chabris CF, Meyer MN (2021) Effect of targeted behavioral science messages on COVID-19 vaccination registration among employees of a large health system: a randomized trial. JAMA Netw Open 4(7):e2118702. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.18702
Sasaki S, Kurokawa H, Ohtake F (2021) Effective but fragile? Responses to repeated nudge-based messages for preventing the spread of COVID-19 infection. Jpn Econ Rev 72(3):371–408
Seres G, Balleyer AH, Cerutti N, Danilov A, Friedrichsen J, Liu Y, Süer M (2021a) Face masks increase compliance with physical distancing recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic. J Econ Sci Assoc 7(2):139–158
Seres G, Balleyer A, Cerutti N, Friedrichsen J, Süer M (2021b) Face mask use and physical distancing before and after mandatory masking: no evidence on risk compensation in public waiting lines. J Econ Behav Organ 192:765–781
Sheeran P, Harris PR, Epton T (2014) Does heightening risk appraisals change people’s intentions and behavior? A meta-analysis of experimental studies. Psychol Bull 140(2):511–543
Shiraly R, Khoshdel N, Jeihooni AK, McLaws ML (2022) Nudging physical distancing behaviours during the pandemic: a field experiment on passengers in the subway stations of Shiraz, Iran. BMC Public Health 22(1):1–7
Sindermann C, Cooper A, Montag C (2020) A short review on susceptibility to falling for fake political news. Curr Opin Psychol 36:44–48
Smith HS, Blumenthal-Barby JS, Chatterjee R, Hindera O, Huang A, Kothari R, Vlaev I (2022) A review of the MINDSPACE framework for nudging health promotion during early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Popul Health Manag 25(4):487–500
Soofi M, Najafi F, Karami-Matin B (2020) Using insights from behavioural economics to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Appl Health Econ Health Policy 18(3):345–350
Stanovich KE (1999) Who is rational?: studies of individual differences in reasoning. Psychology Press, London
Steffen J, Cheng J (2021) The influence of gain-loss framing and its interaction with political ideology on social distancing and mask wearing compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Curr Psychol 2021:1–11
Steinert JI, Sternberg H, Prince H, Fasolo B, Galizzi MM, Büthe T, Veltri GA (2022) COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in eight European countries: prevalence, determinants, and heterogeneity. Science. Advances 8(17):eabm9825. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abm9825
Stutzer A, Goette L, Zehnder M (2011) Active decisions and prosocial behaviour: a field experiment on blood donation. Econ J 121(556):F476–F493
Su Z, Wen J, McDonnell D, Goh E, Li X, Šegalo S, … Xiang YT (2021) Vaccines are not yet a silver bullet: the imperative of continued communication about the importance of COVID-19 safety measures. Brain Behav Immun Health 12:100204
Takebayashi M, Takebayashi K (2021) Control experiment for health center users to compare the usage of hand sanitizers through nudges during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. Int Res J Public Environ Health 8(6):299–303
Tannenbaum MB, Hepler J, Zimmerman RS, Saul L, Jacobs S, Wilson K, Albarracín D (2015) Appealing to fear: a meta-analysis of fear appeal effectiveness and theories. Psychol Bull 141(6):1178–1204
Taylor M (1987) The possibility of cooperation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK
Thöni C, Volk S (2018) Conditional cooperation: review and refinement. Econ Lett 171:37–40
Timmons S, McGinnity F, Belton CA, Barjaková M, Lunn PD (2020a) The effects of framing and social desirability on estimates of compliance with COVID-19 health behaviours. J Epidemiol Commun Health 75:387–389
Timmons S, Barjaková M, Robertson DA, Belton CA, Lunn PD (2020b) Public understanding and perceptions of the COVID-19 test-and-trace system. ESRI Survey Statistical Report Series no. 96, Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin
Timmons S, Belton CA, Robertson DA, Barjaková M, Lavin C, Julienne H, Lunn PD (2022) Is it riskier to meet 100 people outdoors or 14 people indoors? Comparing public and expert perceptions of COVID-19 risk. J Exp Psychol Appl Advance online publication https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000399
Toppenberg-Pejcic D, Noyes J, Allen T, Alexander N, Vanderford M, Gamhewage G (2019) Emergency risk communication: lessons learned from a rapid review of recent gray literature on Ebola, Zika, and yellow fever. Health Commun 34(4):437–455
Trevena LJ, Barratt A, Butow P, Caldwell P (2006) A systematic review on communicating with patients about evidence. J Eval Clin Pract 12(1):13–23
Tversky A, Kahneman D (1974) Judgment under uncertainty: heuristics and biases: biases in judgments reveal some heuristics of thinking under uncertainty. Science 185(4157):1124–1131
Tversky A, Kahneman D (1985) The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice. In: Behavioral decision making. Springer, Boston, pp 25–41
van Bavel JJ, Baicker K, Boggio PS, Capraro V, Cichocka A, Cikara M, … Willer R (2020) Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response. Nat Hum Behav 4(5):460–471
van Bavel JJ, Cichocka A, Capraro V, Sjåstad H, Nezlek JB, Pavlović T, Alfano M, Gelfand MJ, Azevedo F, Birtel MD, Cislak A (2022) National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic. Nat Comm 13(1):517
van der Linden S, Roozenbeek J, Maertens R, Basol M, Kácha O, Rathje S, Traberg CS (2021) How can psychological science help counter the spread of fake news? Span J Psychol 24:e25
Vereen RN, Lazard AJ, Frank SC, Pulido M, Richter APC, Higgins IC, … Ribisl KM (2021) Motivations, barriers, and communication recommendations for promoting face coverings during the COVID-19 pandemic: survey findings from a diverse sample. PLoS One 16(5):e0251169
Viale R (2012) Cognitive diversity in Western and Eastern thinking. In: Methodological cognitivism. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, pp 295–308
Viale R (2022) Nudging. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
Wang W, Wu Q, Yang J, Dong K, Chen X, Bai X et al (2020) Global, regional, and national estimates of target population sizes for covid-19 vaccination: descriptive study. BMJ 371:m4704
Weijers RJ, de Koning BB (2021) Nudging to increase hand hygiene during the COVID-19 pandemic: a field experiment. Can J Behav Sci 53(3):353
Weinstein ND (1980) Unrealistic optimism about future life events. J Pers Soc Psychol 39(5):806
West R, Michie S, Rubin GJ, Amlôt R (2020) Applying principles of behaviour change to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Nat Hum Behav 4(5):451–459
WHO (2020) Behavioural considerations for acceptance and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines: WHO technical advisory group on behavioural insights and sciences for health, Meeting report, 15 Oct 2020 World Health Organization, Geneva
WHO (2021) What is go viral?. https://www.who.int/news/item/23-09-2021-what-is-go-viral. Last accessed 12 Oct 2022
Wu JS, Font X, McCamley C (2022) COVID-19 social distancing compliance mechanisms: UK evidence. Env Res 205:112528
Xiao Z, Henley W, Boyle C, Gao Y, Dillon J (2020) The face mask and the embodiment of stigma. PsyArXiv, June 10, https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/fp7z8
Yan B, Zhang X, Wu L, Zhu H, Chen B (2020) Why do countries respond differently to COVID-19? A comparative study of Sweden, China, France, and Japan. Am Rev Public Adm 50(6–7):762–769
Yun M (2020) How Taiwan is containing Coronavirus – despite diplomatic isolation by China. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/13/how-taiwan-is-containing-coronavirus-despite-diplomatic-isolation-by-china/
Zelmer J (2003) Linear public goods experiments: a meta-analysis. Exp Econ 6(3):299–310
Zipkin DA, Umscheid CA, Keating NL, Allen E, Aung K, Beyth R, Kaatz S, Mann DM, Sussman JB, Korenstein D, Schardt C, Nagi A, Sloane R, Feldstein DA (2014) Evidence-based risk communication: a systematic review. Ann Intern Med 161(4):27
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Cucchiarini, V., Lunn, P., Robertson, D., Viale, R. (2023). Using Social and Behavioral Science to Support COVID-19 Pandemic Response. In: Zimmermann, K.F. (eds) Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_319-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_319-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57365-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57365-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences