Willingness to bear economic costs in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic

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cris.lastimport.scopus2025-08-31T03:10:34Z
dc.abstract.enThe COVID-19 pandemic has created a situation in which people have to choose between economic and health values. This raises the question of what psychological mechanisms determine people’s willingness to bear economic costs to protect health? To answer this question, we examined whether such willingness is better described by compensatory or lexicographic models of decision making in situations involving risk or uncertainty. We compared decisions regarding COVID-19 and occupational diseases to establish a pandemic-independent baseline and to determine whether the mechanisms behind the trade-offs are the same in both cases. Additionally, we tested whether people’s willingness to accept economic costs is related to psychological factors such as fear, feeling of control, declared knowledge about the COVID-19 pandemic, predictions concerning the expected length of the pandemic, and perceived effectiveness of actions taken to fight the coronavirus. In total, 354 Polish participants from Prolific Academic took part in this study. The results were consistent with the view that decisions are made primarily to protect sacred values and are therefore not based on compensatory models. In line with this view, participants were sensitive neither to the risk vs. uncertainty manipulation nor to the perceived effectiveness of the lockdown. Instead, their behavior was congruent with lexicographic models in which the protection of health and in particular the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic appeared to be the most important dimension, and the single criterion to be used in decision making.
dc.affiliationDepartment of Psychology
dc.affiliationWydział Psychologii we Wrocławiu
dc.affiliationInstytut Psychologii
dc.contributor.authorSokołowska, Joanna
dc.contributor.authorZaleśkiewicz, Tomasz
dc.date.access2020-10-27
dc.date.accessioned2023-12-13T09:19:48Z
dc.date.available2023-12-13T09:19:48Z
dc.date.created2020-10-06
dc.date.issued2020-10-27
dc.description.accesstimeat_publication
dc.description.grantnumber2019/33/B/HS6/01920
dc.description.granttitleMental imagery, emotions, and decisions under risk and uncertainty: Visualizing the future as an aid to decision making
dc.description.physical1-9
dc.description.versionfinal_published
dc.description.volume11
dc.identifier.doi10.3389/fpsyg.2020.588910
dc.identifier.issn1664-1078
dc.identifier.urihttps://share.swps.edu.pl/handle/swps/214
dc.identifier.weblinkhttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33192924/
dc.languageen
dc.pbn.affiliationpsychologia
dc.rightsCC-BY
dc.rights.questionYes_rights
dc.share.articleOPEN_JOURNAL
dc.subject.enCOVID-19 pandemic
dc.subject.entradeoffs between economic costs and health
dc.subject.ensacred values
dc.subject.enrisk and uncertainty
dc.subject.encompensatory and non-compensatory models of decisions
dc.swps.sciencecloudnosend
dc.titleWillingness to bear economic costs in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic
dc.title.journalFrontiers in Psychology
dc.typeJournalArticle
dspace.entity.typeArticle