IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/applec/v57y2025i53p8984-8998.html

Impact of risk information on health beliefs and behaviours: experimental evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Ferdous Zaman Sardar

Abstract

The local prevalence of infections and the severity of their consequences are among the key determinants of the adoption of preventive behaviours against infectious diseases. In Bangladesh, where local COVID-19 infection statistics were not readily accessible, I found that most people underestimated the local prevalence of COVID-19 infections while overestimated the fatality rate. In a randomized experiment, the treatment group was provided with information about the coronavirus case numbers in their districts, along with the case fatality rate in Bangladesh and globally. Immediately after receiving this information, the treatment group perceived a higher infection risk. Nine to fifteen days post-intervention, those who received information were less likely to underestimate the local prevalence and, consequently, still perceived a higher infection risk. They also updated their belief about the fatality rate downward. Potentially due to this countervailing update of risk beliefs, the information had no effect on self-reported preventive behaviours.

Suggested Citation

  • Ferdous Zaman Sardar, 2025. "Impact of risk information on health beliefs and behaviours: experimental evidence," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(53), pages 8984-8998, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:57:y:2025:i:53:p:8984-8998
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2024.2405204
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00036846.2024.2405204
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00036846.2024.2405204?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:57:y:2025:i:53:p:8984-8998. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEC20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.