Boosting the Understanding and Approval of Anti‐Corona Measures–Reducing Exponential Growth Bias and its Effects through Educational Nudges

Abstract

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Attitudes toward Coronavirus Protection Measures among German School Students: The Effects of Education and Knowledge about the Pandemic

“…This article was based on findings from previous analyses, which showed that people have great difficulty adequately understanding the speed of COVID-19′s exponential spread, a bias that could be significantly reduced by simple educational nudges (Jäckle and Ettensperger 2021;Lammers et al 2020). These studies also showed that people who…”

“…This study entails two parts. In Part I, we use the same experimental set-up as and identical experimental wording to those of Jäckle and Ettensperger (2021) and Lammers et al (2020) in their third study. We then test for an EGB in the estimation of COVID-19 infections and whether educational nudges can reduce this bias, thereby also changing participants' attitudes and behavior regarding COVID-19 protective measures.…”

“…Since the calculations of the growth processes in general and exponential growth in particular are included in the educational curricula of grades 9 and 10 of all school types 2 in Baden-Württemberg (Ministerium für Kultus, Jugend und Sport Baden-Württemberg 2016), it can be assumed that school students of this age are familiar with the theoretical concepts of these growth processes. School students should therefore be able to fall back on this knowledge more easily than a group of university students, whose last lesson on exponential growth was further back in their past (as in Jäckle and Ettensperger 2021) and clearly be able to do so more easily than a random sample of MTurk users (as in Lammers et al 2020). In addition, after more than 2 years of the pandemic, it can be assumed that the vast majority of school students have at least basic knowledge of the fundamental aspects of COVID-19, such as the exponential mode of propagation.…”

“…However, these works also demonstrate that there is certainly reason for hope: through relatively simple educational support, it is possible to significantly reduce the EGB in order to increase the population's understanding of the pandemic's exponential spread (Jäckle and Ettensperger 2021;Lammers et al 2020). Thus, studies to date suggest that an "educational program" driven by specific educational nudges may be central to achieving a greater understanding of potentially freedom-restricting protective measures among the population.…”

“…Within a sample of school students, Part I of this article therefore tests whether (1) an EGB is still present after more than 2 years after the start of the pandemic, and if so, whether (2) the EGB can be reduced among young people with the help of simple educational nudges and ( 3) to what extent this can influence the school students' attitudes toward COVID-19 protection measures, specifically those that affect life at school. In order to obtain adequately comparable results, this study uses a similar research design to that of Jäckle and Ettensperger (2021) but extends it by some school-specific elements. In more general terms, Part II analyzes to what extent self-perceived subjective knowledge as well as objective knowledge about the COVID-19 pandemic shape the way school students think about the measures.…”