Promoting social distancing in a pandemic: Beyond the good intentions

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.

Telling people to “rely on their reasoning” increases intentions to wear a face covering to slow down COVID‐19 transmission

“…Everett et al (2020) observed that deontological and virtue‐based messages have little effect on people's intentions to wash their hands, avoid social gatherings, share health messages, and other COVID‐19 preventive behaviors. Falco and Zaccagni (2020) found that reminders which emphasize the consequences of violating social distancing rules on the person him or herself and his or her family increase intentions to engage in social distancing, compared with reminders that emphasize the consequences on other people or the country as a whole. Heffner et al (2020) reported that threat and prosocial messages increase intentions to self‐isolate.…”

“…Little is known about this question. Several papers have explored the effect of appeals and messaging on intentions to engage in COVID‐19 preventive behaviors (Bilancini et al, 2020; Capraro & Barcelo, 2020; Everett et al, 2020; Falco & Zaccagni, 2020; Heffner et al, 2020; Jordan et al, 2020; Lunn et al, 2020; Pfattheicher et al, 2020). However, with the exception of one paper, none of these works explored the effect of messages on intentions to wear a face covering; the only exception is Capraro and Barcelo (2020), which found that telling subjects that the coronavirus (COVID‐19) is a threat to their community increases intentions to wear a face covering, relative to the baseline.…”

Heard Immunity: Effective Persuasion for a Future COVID-19 Vaccine

“…This study has important limitations. First, self-reported intention to vaccinate may not be predictive of actual uptake decisions (Leventhal et al 1965;Falco and Zaccagni 2020). Yet, until an actual vaccine against COVID is available, uptake is hypothetical anyway.…”

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.…”