Arbeitspapier

Motivating social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic: An online experiment

Social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic will save lives. We tested communication strategies to promote social distancing via an online experiment (N = 500) commissioned by Ireland's Department of Health. A control group saw a current informational poster. Two treatment groups saw similar posters with messages that highlighted: (i) the risk of transmission to identifiable persons vulnerable to COVID-19; (ii) the exponential nature of transmission. We then measured judgements of behaviours previously identified by focus groups as "marginal" (meaning that people were not sure whether they were advisable, such meeting others outdoors, or visiting parents). We recorded intention to undertake behaviours and stated acceptability of behaviours. Our hypotheses, that both treatments would increase participants' caution about marginal behaviours, were preregistered (i.e. lodged with an international organisation for open science before data collection). Results confirmed the hypotheses. The findings suggest that the thought of infecting vulnerable people or large numbers of people can motivate social distancing. This has implications for communications strategies. The study also demonstrates an effective way to identify outcome variables for rapid behavioural research on the COVID-19 response.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: ESRI Working Paper ; No. 658

Classification
Wirtschaft
Subject
Coronavirus
Experiment
Kommunikation
Verhaltensökonomik

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Lunn, Pete
Timmons, Shane
Belton, Cameron A.
Barjaková, Martina
Julienne, Hannah
Lavin, Ciarán
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)
(where)
Dublin
(when)
2020

Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Lunn, Pete
  • Timmons, Shane
  • Belton, Cameron A.
  • Barjaková, Martina
  • Julienne, Hannah
  • Lavin, Ciarán
  • The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)

Time of origin

  • 2020

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