Promoting Social Distancing in a Pandemic: Beyond the Good Intentions

Abstract

Do reminders to promote social distancing achieve the desired effects? Much of the existing literature analyses impacts on people's intentions to comply. We run a randomised controlled trial in Denmark to test different versions of a reminder to stay home at the beginning of the crisis. Using a two-stage design, we follow up with recipients and analyse their subsequent behaviour. We find that the reminder increases ex-ante intentions to comply when it emphasises the consequences of non-compliance for the subjects themselves and their families, while it has no effect when the emphasis is on other people or the country as a whole. We also find, however, that impacts on intentions do not translate into equivalent impacts on actions. This is despite the possibility that respondents may tend to over-report compliance. Only people in poor health react to the reminder by staying home more. Our results shed light on important gaps between people's intentions and their actions in responding to the recommendations of health authorities.

Socially optimal mistakes? debiasing COVID-19 mortality risk perceptions and prosocial behavior

“…3 However, we go beyond self-reported behaviors and use incentivized outcomes (donations and time investment). This turns out to have important implications for the conclusions we draw about the effectiveness of our debiasing intervention and echoes Falco and Zaccagni (2020) who find that the effects on self-reported behavior of a COVID-19 information intervention in Denmark do not necessarily predict actual behavioral changes.…”

“…For example,Falco and Zaccagni (2020) find that text message reminders about COVID-19 affect intended behavior but that intentions do not translate into actual changes in behavior.…”

Effective but fragile? Responses to repeated nudge-based messages for preventing the spread of COVID-19 infection

“…Previous studies have reported an intention-behavior gap in the effects of messages to encourage COVID-19 preventive behavior (Falco & Zaccagni, 2020 ). 11 Although this study shows that only the gain-framed altruistic message promotes people’s behaviors of refraining from going out and avoiding contact with others, the other four messages may strengthen people’s behavioral intentions.…”

“…When setting behaviors as the dependent variable rather than intentions, very few studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of nudge-based messages. Falco and Zaccagni ( 2020 ) find that a message that emphasizes taking preventive measures benefits “you and your family” increases the intention to engage in such actions while having no observable effect on behaviors. Barari et al ( 2020 ) and Everett et al ( 2020 ) also find no behavioral change following such messages.…”

Message Framing Effects on Individuals' Social Distancing and Helping Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Jordan et al ( 2020 ) compared messages that implied a threat to the individual (e.g., “don't get it”), a threat to the public (e.g., “don't spread it”), and both (e.g., “don't get and spread it”) and revealed that messages that implied a threat to the public were more effective in the early periods of the pandemic. By contrast, Falco and Zaccagni ( 2020 ) showed that reminders that emphasized the consequences of non-compliance for the individual or her family (vs. unknown others or the country's healthcare system) were more effective in motivating compliance. Raihani and de-Wit ( 2020 ) further showed that subjective concern in terms of the self and one's family was a stronger predictor of preventive behavior than more broadly framed concern in terms of society.…”