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Promoting social distancing in a pandemic: Beyond the good intentions

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  • Falco, Paolo
  • Zaccagni, Sarah

Abstract

Reminders to promote social distancing have been ubiquitous throughout the COVID-19 crisis, but little is known about their effectiveness. We conducted a randomised trial in Denmark at the peak of the crisis to test different versions of a reminder to stay home. We measure impacts on both intentions to comply and subsequent actions (subjects reporting having stayed home in a follow-up survey). We find that reminders increase intentions to comply when they emphasise the consequences of non-compliance for the subjects themselves or their families. They have no impact when the emphasis is on other people or the country as a whole. Changes in intentions, however, do not translate into significant changes in actions (despite the possibility that self-reported compliance may be overstated). Compliance only increases among people in poor health. This shows that reminders can protect groups at risk by increasing their own distancing, but have lower impacts on those who are not in immediate danger and could spread the disease.

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  • Falco, Paolo & Zaccagni, Sarah, 2020. "Promoting social distancing in a pandemic: Beyond the good intentions," OSF Preprints a2nys, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:a2nys
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/a2nys
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    As found on the RePEc Biblio, the curated bibliography for Economics:
    1. > Economics of Welfare > Health Economics > Economics of Pandemics > Specific pandemics > Covid-19 > Behavioral issues > Information

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    Cited by:

    1. Campos-Mercade, Pol & Meier, Armando N. & Schneider, Florian H. & Wengström, Erik, 2021. "Prosociality predicts health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    2. repec:cup:judgdm:v:15:y:2020:i:6:p:1037-1043 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Valerio Capraro & Hélène Barcelo, 2020. "The effect of messaging and gender on intentions to wear a face covering to slow down COVID-19 transmission," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 4(S2), pages 45-55, December.
    4. Duquette, Nicolas, 2020. "Heard immunity: effective persuasion for a future COVID-19 vaccine," SocArXiv jwvsp, Center for Open Science.
    5. Daisuke Moriwaki & Soichiro Harada & Jiyan Schneider & Takahiro Hoshino, 2020. "Nudging Preventive Behaviors in COVID-19 Crisis: A Large Scale RCT using Smartphone Advertising," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2020-021, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    6. Shusaku Sasaki & Hirofumi Kurokawa & Fumio Ohtake, 2021. "Effective but fragile? Responses to repeated nudge-based messages for preventing the spread of COVID-19 infection," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 72(3), pages 371-408, July.
    7. Bahety, Girija & Bauhoff, Sebastian & Patel, Dev & Potter, James, 2021. "Texts don’t nudge: An adaptive trial to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    8. Paolo Nicola Barbieri & Beatrice Bonini, 2021. "Political orientation and adherence to social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(2), pages 483-504, July.
    9. Abel, Martin & Byker, Tanya & Carpenter, Jeffrey, 2021. "Socially optimal mistakes? debiasing COVID-19 mortality risk perceptions and prosocial behavior," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 456-480.
    10. Ennio Bilancini & Leonardo Boncinelli & Valerio Capraro & Roberto Di Paolo, 2020. "The effect of norm-based messages on reading and understanding COVID-19 pandemic response governmental rules," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 4(S), pages 45-55, June.
    11. Shusaku Sasaki & Hirofumi Kurokawa & Fumio Ohtake, 2020. "Short-term responses to nudge-based messages for preventing the spread of COVID-19 infection: Intention, behavior, and life satisfaction," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 20-11, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    12. Masayuki SATO & Shin KINOSHITA & Takanori IDA, 2022. "Subjective Risk Valuation and Behavioral Change : Evidence from COVID-19 in the U.K. and Japan," Discussion papers e-22-011, Graduate School of Economics , Kyoto University.
    13. Qi Guo & Palizhati Muhetaer & Ping Hu, 2023. "Cultural worldviews and support for governmental management of COVID-19," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-16, December.
    14. Fumio Ohtake, 2022. "Can nudges save lives?," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 73(2), pages 245-268, April.
    15. Seitz,William Hutchins, 2021. "Mass Messaging and Health Risk Reduction : Evidence from COVID-19 Text Messages in Tajikistan," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9755, The World Bank.
    16. Sachin Banker & Joowon Park, 2020. "Evaluating prosocial COVID-19 messaging frames: Evidence from a field study on Facebook," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 15(6), pages 1037-1043, November.
    17. Gutierrez, Emilio & Rubli, Adrian & Tavares, Tiago, 2022. "Information and behavioral responses during a pandemic: Evidence from delays in Covid-19 death reports," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).

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