Abstract
Behavioural responses to pandemics are less shaped by actual mortality or hospitalisation risks than they are by risk attitudes. We explore human mobility patterns as a measure of behavioural responses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results indicate that risk-taking attitudes are a critical factor in predicting reductions in human mobility and social confinement around the globe. We find that the sharp decline in mobility after the WHO (World Health Organization) declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic can be attributed to risk attitudes. Our results suggest that regions with risk-averse attitudes are more likely to adjust their behavioural activity in response to the declaration of a pandemic even before official government lockdowns. Further understanding of the basis of responses to epidemics, e.g., precautionary behaviour, will help improve the containment of the spread of the virus.
Highlights
Risk-taking attitudes and behaviours are important elements of human behaviour as they determine a range of decision-making strategies[19] and contribute to people’s ability to navigate a complex, uncertain, and dangerous world, where risk looms large[13]
We examined the relationship between the changes in human mobility during the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the average risk preferences of individuals in 58 countries
Examining the general relationship between risk attitudes and the change in mobility in the entire sample period, we find some evident relationship to two locations
Summary
Risk-taking attitudes and behaviours are important elements of human behaviour as they determine a range of decision-making strategies[19] and contribute to people’s ability to navigate a complex, uncertain, and dangerous world, where risk looms large[13]. Advanced civilisations dating back to the Asipu in Mesopotamia in 3200 B.C. had risk management strategies in place to estimate profits/losses or successes/failures (25 discussed in26). Another early example of risk analysis and risk management can be found in the Code of Hammurabi issued in 1950 B.C.26. Our evolution has equipped us with a cognitive apparatus enabling us to monitor danger during our daily a ctivities[27], as these enduring and recurring risks in our environment have required evolutionary adaptiveness as a core selective factor for survival[28]. The implication is that we must remain safe to guarantee our survival as such it comes as no surprise that we are all innately aware of the proverb “Better safe than sorry”
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