Cognitive Predictors of Precautionary Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Volker Thoma,Peter Ayton,Petra Filkuková,Leonardo Weiss-Cohen

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.589800

Abstract

The attempts to mitigate the unprecedented health, economic, and social disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are largely dependent on establishing compliance to behavioral guidelines and rules that reduce the risk of infection. Here, by conducting an online survey that tested participants’ knowledge about the disease and measured demographic, attitudinal, and cognitive variables, we identify predictors of self-reported social distancing and hygiene behavior. To investigate the cognitive processes underlying health-prevention behavior in the pandemic, we co-opted the dual-process model of thinking to measure participants’ propensities for automatic and intuitive thinking vs. controlled and reflective thinking. Self-reports of 17 precautionary behaviors, including regular hand washing, social distancing, and wearing a face mask, served as a dependent measure. The results of hierarchical regressions showed that age, risk-taking propensity, and concern about the pandemic predicted adoption of precautionary behavior. Variance in cognitive processes also predicted precautionary behavior: participants with higher scores for controlled thinking (measured with the Cognitive Reflection Test) reported less adherence to specific guidelines, as did respondents with a poor understanding of the infection and transmission mechanism of the COVID-19 virus. The predictive power of this model was comparable to an approach (Theory of Planned Behavior) based on attitudes to health behavior. Given these results, we propose the inclusion of measures of cognitive reflection and mental model variables in predictive models of compliance, and future studies of precautionary behavior to establish how cognitive variables are linked with people’s information processing and social norms.

Highlights

Behavioral Measures to Control COVID-19Countries world-wide are currently considering how to guide and change people’s behavior in order to maintain or ease COVID-related measures such as social distancing, increased hand washing, self-isolation, etc
We evaluated how well two different models predicted the extent of preventive behavior: a dual-process theory (DPT) model, and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model
We found that cognitive factors, such as cognitive reflection and the quality of mental models, predicted the amount of self-reported precautionary behaviors and compliance with official prevention guidelines

Summary

Introduction

Countries world-wide are currently considering how to guide and change people’s behavior in order to maintain or ease COVID-related measures such as social distancing, increased hand washing, self-isolation, etc. The famous Imperial College model (Ferguson et al, 2020), which altered the United Kingdom’s strategy, assumed 25% non-compliance on social distancing for people aged over 70, apparently without any specific empirical basis Studies conducted both before (Keizer et al, 2019) and during (Xie et al, 2020) the COVID pandemic have shown that various factors influence compliance with officially recommended health measures, which in turn should increase prevention success, including cognitive ability or disposition to pay attention, understand, memorize, or enact official guidelines. The use of more finegrained cognitive-behavioral predictions should enable better adherence estimates and allow adjustments of policies and guidelines (Anderson et al, 2020; Webster et al, 2020)

Results

Discussion

Conclusion