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

Abstract

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Willingness to give amid pandemics: a contingent valuation of anticipated nongovernmental immunization programs

“…Our findings also suggest that altruism is the predominant reason to give in the context of immunization against a pandemic, reported by a majority of respondents who would donate to nongovernmental immunization campaigns. This is consistent with recent studies that found that prosocial attitudes are related to WTG amid the COVID-19 pandemic (Abel et al, 2021;Campos-Mercade et al, 2021). Impure altruism in the form of benefiting from a public good was the second most popular motive, as reported by almost 29% of those who would give.…”

“…Campos-Mercade et al (2021) found that more than 20% of respondents would not donate to the proposed fund, almost 50% would donate half of the value of the gift card, and the rest would donate something in between. 1 In a similar study, Abel et al (2021) implemented online experiments to measure perceived risks of COVID-19. After a series of experiments, participants were offered a bonus of $0.50 for completing the survey.…”

“…First, we elicit giving preferences for nongovernmental immunization campaigns, as vaccines are a critical tool for mitigating the public health crisis and limiting the associated economic fallout. While prosocial attitudes may influence individuals' decisions to donate for personal protective equipment, response supplies, and healthcare services in other countries (Abel et al, 2021;Campos-Mercade et al, 2021), giving to immunization programs for uninsured people in the same country may also be a demonstration of impure altruism (e.g. self-protection and warm-glow motives).…”

“…to the national CDC Emergency Fund in Abel et al (2021) and international WHO and UNICEF's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund in Campos-Mercade et al (2021), nongovernmental organizations may be perceived as underfunded and more focused on underserved communities, generating altruistic motives. Hence, the context of nongovernmental immunization campaigns is appropriate to identify different factors underlying giving preferences.…”

Evolving impacts of COVID-19 vaccination intentions on travel intentions

“…Young people's vaccine intentions are higher than the general population (Benis et al, 2021). Previous research suggested that women, lower-income and lower education individuals in developed countries would seek to mitigate health risks by vaccination (Dohmen et al, 2021) due to higher perceived infection health risks (Abel et al, 2021). Educated people in developed countries may have low intention to adopt vaccination, due to perceived vaccine side effects and lower perceived infection risks (Larson et al, 2016).…”