Prosociality predicts health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic

Campos‐Mercade, Pol; Meier, Armando N.; Schneider, Florian; Wengström, Erik

doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104367

Cited by 195 publications

(182 citation statements)

References 98 publications

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“…However, from a policymakers' perspective, young people (49.02% of participants below 35 years of age vs. 22% of the overall US population between 20 and 34 years old) intend to be vaccinated (83.3%) as a civic responsibility (83.3%) even if they are not defined as a priority group in the COVID-19 vaccination policies. This fits with prior research showing that prosocial motivations [31], such as the positive impact of vaccination on protecting relatives and community, more strongly predict the intent to vaccinate than self-protection [34,35]…”

Section: Multivariate Analysissupporting

confidence: 90%

Reasons for Taking the COVID-19 Vaccine by US Social Media Users

2021

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Political and public health leaders promoting COVID-19 vaccination should identify the most relevant criteria driving the vaccination decision. Social media is increasingly used as a source of vaccination data and as a powerful communication tool to increase vaccination. In December 2020, we performed a cross-sectional social media-based survey addressing personal sentiments toward COVID-19 vaccination in the USA. Our primary research objective is to identify socio-demographic characteristics and the reasons for the 1644 survey participants’ attitudes regarding vaccination. We present clear evidence that, contrary to the prevailing public perceptions, young audiences using social media have mostly a positive attitude towards COVID-19 vaccination (81.5%). These younger individuals want to protect their families and their relatives (96.7%); they see vaccination as an act of civic responsibility (91.9%) and express strong confidence in their healthcare providers (87.7%). Another critical factor is the younger population’s fear of personal COVID-19 infection (88.2%); moreover, the greater the number of children the participants have, the greater is their intent to get the COVID-19 vaccine. These results enable a practical public-messaging pathway to reinforce vaccination campaigns addressing the younger population.

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Section: Multivariate Analysissupporting

confidence: 90%

Reasons for Taking the COVID-19 Vaccine by US Social Media Users

2021

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“…Yet another possible explanation for the positive correlation between CRT and P.Not.Now is the negative association between CRT and prosocial acting. According to the recent study by Campos-Mercade et al (2021), prosociality predicted health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Capraro et al (2017), intuition is connected with concern for relative shares (which could be not only egalitarian but also spiteful), whereas deliberation is associated with individuals' focus on social efficiency.…”

Section: Explanations For Crt Correlationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive Predictors of Precautionary Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic

et al. 2021

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The attempts to mitigate the unprecedented health, economic, and social disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are largely dependent on establishing compliance to behavioral guidelines and rules that reduce the risk of infection. Here, by conducting an online survey that tested participants’ knowledge about the disease and measured demographic, attitudinal, and cognitive variables, we identify predictors of self-reported social distancing and hygiene behavior. To investigate the cognitive processes underlying health-prevention behavior in the pandemic, we co-opted the dual-process model of thinking to measure participants’ propensities for automatic and intuitive thinking vs. controlled and reflective thinking. Self-reports of 17 precautionary behaviors, including regular hand washing, social distancing, and wearing a face mask, served as a dependent measure. The results of hierarchical regressions showed that age, risk-taking propensity, and concern about the pandemic predicted adoption of precautionary behavior. Variance in cognitive processes also predicted precautionary behavior: participants with higher scores for controlled thinking (measured with the Cognitive Reflection Test) reported less adherence to specific guidelines, as did respondents with a poor understanding of the infection and transmission mechanism of the COVID-19 virus. The predictive power of this model was comparable to an approach (Theory of Planned Behavior) based on attitudes to health behavior. Given these results, we propose the inclusion of measures of cognitive reflection and mental model variables in predictive models of compliance, and future studies of precautionary behavior to establish how cognitive variables are linked with people’s information processing and social norms.

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“…We encourage future research to further explore the mechanisms by which conflicting COVID-19 risk information affect vaccination decisions, see, e.g., Viscusi (1997), Viscusi et al (1999), andFox et al (2002). Finally, other studies show that some preventive behaviors during the current pandemic are motivated by prosocial attitudes (Campos-Mercade et al, 2020;Jordan et al, 2020;Thunström et al, 2020). Future 14 Also, the intended vaccine uptake for the treatments with low IFR only (n = 1,597) is 81%, i.e., about the same as the average vaccine uptake for the study as a whole.…”

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confidence: 94%

Hesitancy Toward a COVID-19 Vaccine

et al. 2021

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The scientific community has come together in a mass mobilization to combat the public health risks of COVID-19, including efforts to develop a vaccine. However, the success of any vaccine depends on the share of the population that gets vaccinated. We designed a survey experiment in which a nationally representative sample of 3,133 adults in the USA stated their intentions to vaccinate themselves and their children for COVID-19. The factors that we varied across treatments were: the stated severity and infectiousness of COVID-19 and the stated source of the risk information (White House or the Centers for Disease Control). We find that 20% of people in the USA intend to decline the vaccine. We find no statistically significant effect on vaccine intentions from the severity of COVID-19. In contrast, we find that the degree of infectiousness of the coronavirus influences vaccine intentions and that inconsistent risk messages from public health experts and elected officials may reduce vaccine uptake. However, the most important determinants of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy seem to be distrust of the vaccine safety (including uncertainty due to vaccine novelty), as well as general vaccine avoidance, as implied by not having had a flu shot in the last two years.

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Prosociality predicts health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic

Cited by 195 publications

References 98 publications

Reasons for Taking the COVID-19 Vaccine by US Social Media Users

Reasons for Taking the COVID-19 Vaccine by US Social Media Users

Cognitive Predictors of Precautionary Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Hesitancy Toward a COVID-19 Vaccine

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