COVID-19, stigma, and habituation: evidence from mobility data

Abstract

Background The Japanese government has restricted people’s going-out behavior by declaring a non-punitive state of emergency several times under COVID-19. This study aims to analyze how multiple policy interventions that impose non-legally binding restrictions on behavior associate with people’s going-out. Theory This study models the stigma model of self-restraint behavior under the pandemic with habituation effects. The theoretical result indicates that the state of emergency’s self-restraint effects weaken with the number of times. Methods The empirical analysis examines the impact of emergency declarations on going-out behavior using a prefecture-level daily panel dataset. The dataset includes Google’s going-out behavior data, the Japanese government’s policy interventions based on emergency declarations, and covariates that affect going-out behavior, such as weather and holidays. Results First, for multiple emergency declarations from the beginning of the pandemic to 2021, the negative association between emergency declarations and mobility was confirmed in a model that did not distinguish the number of emergency declarations. Second, in the model that considers the number of declarations, the negative association was found to decrease with the number of declarations. Conclusion These empirical analyses are consistent with the results of theoretical analyses, which show that the negative association between people’s going-out behavior and emergency declarations decreases in magnitude as the number of declarations increases.

Tourists’ Compliance With Public Policy and Government Trust: An Application of Protection Motivation Theory

“…However, as time progressed, citizens adapted to the new normal, causing a decline in their perception of the risk of COVID-19 infection, thus decreasing the strength of threat appraisal in predicting self-protection behavior. In psychology, this phenomenon is known as habituation, where the strength of an individual’s response to a stimulus after repeated exposure decreases significantly (Kurita et al, 2023; Rankin et al, 2009).…”

Impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the primary lung cancer screening program in Akita Prefecture, a region with the fastest aging population in Japan

“…Therefore, older residents of Akita likely avoid chest X‐ray screening. Third, social stigma is reported to exist during the COVID‐19 pandemic, and people fear both COVID‐19 infection itself and social discrimination owing to infection 18–20 . Additionally, social discrimination tends to be stronger in areas with lower COVID‐19 prevalence, 19 suggesting that fear of social discrimination was strong in Akita Prefecture, where the COVID‐19 prevalence was lower 15 .…”

“…Third, social stigma is reported to exist during the COVID‐19 pandemic, and people fear both COVID‐19 infection itself and social discrimination owing to infection 18–20 . Additionally, social discrimination tends to be stronger in areas with lower COVID‐19 prevalence, 19 suggesting that fear of social discrimination was strong in Akita Prefecture, where the COVID‐19 prevalence was lower 15 . Therefore, aging, distance and social stigma are among the reasons for the large decrease in the rate of chest X‐ray screening in Akita.…”

“…We then evaluated the effect of the COVID‐19 pandemic on lung cancer staging. In this analysis, we used a dataset from the Collaborative Akita Prefecture Hospital‐Based Cancer Registration System, which gathers data from all 12 cancer treatment hospitals in Akita Prefecture 17–19 . The 12 above‐mentioned facilities were as follows: Akita University Hospital, Odate Municipal General Hospital, Akita Kousei Medical Center, Akita Red Cross Hospital, Omagari Kosei Medical Center, Hiraka General Hospital, Noshiro Kosei Medical Center, Yuri Union General Hospital, Ogachi Central Hospital, Kita Akita Municipal Hospital, Akita City Hospital and Nakadori General Hospital.…”

“…The 12 above‐mentioned facilities were as follows: Akita University Hospital, Odate Municipal General Hospital, Akita Kousei Medical Center, Akita Red Cross Hospital, Omagari Kosei Medical Center, Hiraka General Hospital, Noshiro Kosei Medical Center, Yuri Union General Hospital, Ogachi Central Hospital, Kita Akita Municipal Hospital, Akita City Hospital and Nakadori General Hospital. The registry also includes data from patients who were diagnosed with lung cancer as the result of a personal medical checkup, a visit for subjective symptoms or an incidental detection during a hospital visit for other diseases 17–19 . Staging was limited to patients with lung cancer who were eligible for treatment, and was carried out in accordance with the 8th Edition of the Union for International Cancer Control TNM Classification of Malignant Tumors.…”