Changes in risk perception and self-reported protective behaviour during the first week of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
Open accessAbstract
Efforts to change behaviour are critical in minimizing the spread of highly transmissible pandemics such as COVID-19. However, it is unclear whether individuals are aware of disease risk and alter their behaviour early in the pandemic. We investigated risk perception and self-reported engagement in protective behaviours in 1591 United States-based individuals cross-sectionally and longitudinally over the first week of the pandemic. Subjects demonstrated growing awareness of risk and reported engaging in protective behaviours with increasing frequency but underestimated their risk of infection relative to the average person in the country. Social distancing and hand washing were most strongly predicted by the perceived probability of personally being infected. However, a subgroup of individuals perceived low risk and did not engage in these behaviours. Our results highlight the importance of risk perception in early interventions during large-scale pandemics.
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Higher perceived risk of infection increased self-reported engagement in protective behaviours during the first week of the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA.
“A recent study has shown that higher perceived risk of infection increased self-reported engagement in protective behaviours during the first week of the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA [38].”
From Adaptive function and correlates of anxiety during a pandemic (2021) · cites this paper as [38]
The Results section, “Influence of risk perception on self-reported protective behaviours” (page unavailable), reports that higher perceived personal infection risk predicted greater self-reported hand washing and social distancing in US participants. The study reports an association, not evidence that perceived risk caused the increase in engagement implied by “increased.” (LLM, conf=0.84)
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- Authors
- Wise, T., Zbozinek, T. D., Michelini, G., Hagan, C. C., & Mobbs, D.
- Affiliations
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wise, Toby
- Mobbs, Dean
- Venue
- Royal Society Open Science
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2020-09
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 200742-200742
- ISSN
- 2054-5703 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7540790
- OpenAlex
- W3085292248
- Cited by
- 734
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 22 · 2025: 37 · 2024: 70 · 2023: 127 · 2022: 205 · 2021: 205 · 2020: 68
- FWCI
- 202.17
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Royal Society Open Science (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- CaltechAUTHORS (California Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Queen Mary Research Online (Queen Mary University of London) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (2P50MH094258)
- Chen Institute (P2026052)
- Wellcome Trust (206460/17/Z)
- National Science Foundation (1911441)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Risk Perception and Management
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › COVID-19 Prevention and Impact
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Modeling and Simulation › COVID-19 epidemiological studies
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, risk perception, protective behavior, social distancing, hand washing, risk underestimation, behavior change, infection risk awareness
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