Risk of infection and appeal to public benefit increase compliance with infection control measures

Resumen

To handle an infectious outbreak, the public must be informed about the infection risk and be motivated to comply with infection control measures. Perceiving the situation as threatening and seeing public benefits to complying may increase the public’s motivation to comply. The current study used a preregistered survey experiment to investigate if emphasizing high infection risk and appealing to societal benefits impacted intention to comply with infection control measures. The results show main effects of risk and of appeals to societal benefits. There was no interaction between risk scenario and motivational emphasis. The results suggest that to maximize compliance, information about disease outbreak should emphasize the individual risk of contracting the disease, and could also underline the public value of limiting infection spread. These findings can inform communication strategies during an infectious disease outbreak and help health authorities limit transmission.

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Cómo citar (APA 7)

Bjørkheim, S., & Sætrevik, B. (2022). Risk of infection and appeal to public benefit increase compliance with infection control measures. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/myv4t