“Trust me, I’m your neighbour” How to improve epidemic risk containment through community trust

Abstract

The COVID-19 crisis, while still in its first phase where a cure or vaccine are not available, has made societal safety highly depending on the commitment of individual citizens. Governments and policy-makers must make a priority over issuing public communication which can involve population and maximize their compliance. Our ability to encourage appropriate behaviour in citizens can be enhanced by regarding community safety as a public good or a social dilemma, and applying insights from behavioural studies on public good scenarios in the planning of public risk communication and policies. This brief communication will report some insights from experiments on cooperation for public goods where the stake is the avoidance of a potential loss instead of a gain, discussing the main motives of individual contribution. Implications for the containment of risk from the COVID-19 epidemic will be discussed.