Abstract
Given the importance of perceived susceptibility to a disease in adopting preventive behaviors, and the negative impact of optimism bias on prevention, this paper aimed to explore to what extent comparative optimism bias (understood as the tendency to assess a lower probability for oneself to experience negative health events compared to others) is present in the specific context of the Covid-19 pandemic, in two countries with different profiles in terms of the spread of the disease: Italy and Romania. After identifying optimism bias in both countries, we tested whether it depends on respondents’ characteristics like gender, age, education, health status and whether or not they have the opportunity to work from home. We surveyed 1126 Romanians and 742 Italians, and found that optimism bias depends on self-reported health status, and that optimism bias increases with age. Inconclusive evidences were found regarding gender and education level, as well as the option to work from home.
Highlights
Given the importance of perceived susceptibility to a disease in adopting preventive behaviors, and the negative impact of optimism bias on prevention, this paper aimed to explore to what extent comparative optimism bias is present in the specific context of the Covid-19 pandemic, in two countries with different profiles in terms of the spread of the disease: Italy and Romania
Perceived susceptibility to the disease or perceived risk constitutes one major determinant for prevention under different theoretical frameworks applied to health psychology: theory of planned behavior [8], health belief model [9]
Associated objective and subjective factors, of how the optimism bias was experienced in Romania and Italy, at different moments of the pandemic evolution?
Summary
“People tend to think they are invulnerable. They expect others to be victims of misfortune, not themselves” [1]. For the purpose of this research, we adopt the comparative view on optimism bias and define it as the tendency to assess a lower probability for oneself to experience negative health events compared to others [12]. It expresses a mismatch between perceived risk. Associated objective and subjective factors, of how the optimism bias was experienced in Romania and Italy, at different moments of the pandemic evolution?. We propose a comparison of two alternative measurements for an optimism index, showing that direct versus indirect measurements has an influence on how people perceive their susceptibility to the virus.
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