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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Can We Do Better Next Time? Italians' Response to the COVID-19 Emergency through a Heuristics and Biases Lens.

Raffaella MisuracaUrsina TeuscherCostanza Scaffidi AbbateFrancesco CeresiaMichele RoccellaLucia ParisiLuigi VetriSilvana Miceli

subject

Behavioral NeuroscienceBiaseBiases COVID‐19 Decision‐making HeuristicsCOVID‐19GeneticsDecision‐makingHeuristicDevelopmentSettore M-PSI/05 - Psicologia SocialeGeneral PsychologyEcology Evolution Behavior and Systematics

description

During the outbreak of COVID-19 in Italy, people often failed to adopt behaviors that could have stopped, or at least slowed down, the spread of this deadly disease. We offer cognitive explanations for these decisions, based on some of the most common heuristics and biases that are known to influence human judgment and decision-making, especially under conditions of high uncertainty. Our analysis concludes with the following recommendations: policymakers can and should take advantage of this established science, in order to communicate more effectively and increase the likelihood that people choose responsible actions in a public health crisis.

yearjournalcountryeditionlanguage
2022-02-07Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland)
10.3390/bs12020039https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35200290