Beliefs and behaviors about COVID-19

Participants are randomly assigned to one of two groups. Those in the first group are shown a message explaining that studies show that those who contract COVID-19 will, on average, infect two other people (called the lower-bound treatment). Those in the second group are shown a message explaining that studies show that those who contract COVID-19 will, on average, infect five other people (called the upper-bound treatment). The treatment messages are coupled with graphics illustrating how COVID-19 might spread if the virus is passed on three times at the respective levels of infectiousness.

2020-03-26

2020-03-29

After being exposed to the treatments, we measure our key object of interest––participants’ beliefs about the infectiousness of COVID-19. More specifically, we ask “On average, how many people do you think will catch the Coronavirus from one contagious person? Please only consider cases transmitted by coughing, sneezing, touch or other direct contact with the contagious person”. Participants are free to enter any integer between 0 and 100.

Next, we ask participants about a number of other COVID-19-related beliefs: 1. the probability of being hospitalized conditional on contracting the virus, 2. the probability of dying conditional on being hospitalized for the virus, 3. the share of people in their country that are currently infected with COVID-19, 4. the share of people in their country that will catch COVID-19 by 31 August 2020, and 5. the chance that they get COVID-19 by 31 August 2020.

Further, we ask people about their willingness to comply with three COVID-19-related best practices for 1 week and 2 months. These best practices are 1) frequent handwashing, 2) working from home, and 3) not meeting people in high-risk groups. We choose these outcomes because they represent behaviors that are common components of governments’ COVID-19 mitigation strategies (see, for example, Cabinet Office, 2020). While we only measure stated intentions for future behavior and recognize the limitations of such measures, we see no reason to think that these limitations will have more of an effect on one treatment group than another. As a result, our estimated treatment effects should at least have the same sign as the true treatment effect on actual behaviors.

Participants are randomly assigned to one of two groups. Those in the first group are shown a message explaining that studies show that those who contract COVID-19 will, on average, infect two other people (called the lower-bound treatment). Those in the second group are shown a message explaining that studies show that those who contract COVID-19 will, on average, infect five other people (called the upper-bound treatment). The treatment messages are coupled with graphics illustrating how COVID-19 might spread if the virus is passed on three times at the respective levels of infectiousness.

Participants are randomly assigned to one of two groups. Those in the first group are shown a message explaining that studies show that those who contract COVID-19 will, on average, infect two other people (called the lower-bound treatment). Those in the second group are shown a message explaining that studies show that those who contract COVID-19 will, on average, infect five other people (called the upper-bound treatment). The treatment messages are coupled with graphics illustrating how COVID-19 might spread if the virus is passed on three times at the respective levels of infectiousness.

Randomization done using Qualtrics built-in program

Survey participant

No

1

2,428

1214