University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
Thurgau Institute of Economics, Kreuzlingen, Switzerland.
PLoS One. 2021 Jul 19;16(7):e0253621. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0253621. eCollection 2021.
Human behavior can have effects on oneself and externalities on others. Mask wearing is such a behavior in the current pandemic. What motivates people to wear face masks in public when mask wearing is voluntary or not enforced? Which benefits should the policy makers rather emphasize in information campaigns-the reduced chances of getting the SARS-CoV-2 virus (benefits for oneself) or the reduced chances of transmitting the virus (benefits for others in the society)? In this paper, we link measured risk preferences and other-regarding preferences to mask wearing habits among 840 surveyed employees of two large Swiss hospitals. We find that the leading mask-wearing motivations change with age: While for older people, mask wearing habits are best explained by their self-regarding risk preferences, younger people are also motivated by other-regarding concerns. Our results are robust to different specifications including linear probability models, probit models and Lasso covariate selection models. Our findings thus allow drawing policy implications for effectively communicating public-health recommendations to frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
人类行为既可能对自身产生影响，也可能对他人产生外部性。在当前的大流行中，戴口罩就是这样一种行为。当戴口罩是自愿的或不强制要求时，是什么促使人们在公共场合戴口罩？政策制定者在信息宣传中更应该强调哪些好处——感染 SARS-CoV-2 病毒的几率降低（对自己有益），还是病毒传播几率降低（对社会中其他人有益）？在本文中，我们将衡量的风险偏好和他人偏好与瑞士两家大医院的 840 名调查员工的口罩佩戴习惯联系起来。我们发现，主要的口罩佩戴动机随着年龄的变化而变化：对于老年人来说，口罩佩戴习惯可以很好地用自我风险偏好来解释，而年轻人也受到他人关注的动机的驱动。我们的结果在不同的规格中都是稳健的，包括线性概率模型、概率模型和套索协变量选择模型。因此，我们的研究结果为在 COVID-19 大流行期间向一线工作人员有效传达公共卫生建议提供了政策启示。
