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Porträtt av Erik Wengström. Foto.

Erik Wengström

Studierektor forskarutbildning, Nationalekonomiska institutionen, Professor

Porträtt av Erik Wengström. Foto.

Prosociality predicts health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic

Författare

  • Pol Campos-Mercade
  • Armando Meier
  • Florian Schneider
  • Erik Wengström

Summary, in English

Socially responsible behavior is crucial for slowing the spread of infectious diseases. However, economic and epidemiological models of disease transmission abstract from prosocial motivations as a driver of behaviors that impact the health of others. In an incentivized study, we show that a large majority of people are very reluctant to put others at risk for their personal benefit. Moreover, this experimental measure of prosociality predicts health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic, measured in a separate and ostensibly unrelated study with the same people. Prosocial individuals are more likely to follow physical distancing guidelines, stay home when sick, and buy face masks. We also find that prosociality measured two years before the pandemic predicts health behaviors during the pandemic. Our findings indicate that prosociality is a stable, long-term predictor of policy-relevant behaviors, suggesting that the impact of policies on a population may depend on the degree of prosociality.

Avdelning/ar

  • Nationalekonomiska institutionen

Publiceringsår

2021

Språk

Engelska

Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie

Journal of Public Economics

Volym

195

Dokumenttyp

Artikel i tidskrift

Förlag

Elsevier

Ämne

  • Economics

Aktiv

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt

  • ISSN: 0047-2727