IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jgames/v11y2020i3p39-d414819.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimism Bias during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Empirical Evidence from Romania and Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Elena Druică

    (Centre for Applied Behavioral Economics, University of Bucharest, 030018 Bucharest, Romania)

  • Fabio Musso

    (Department of Economics, Society and Politics, Carlo Bo University from Urbino, 61029 Urbino, Italy)

  • Rodica Ianole-Călin

    (Centre for Applied Behavioral Economics, University of Bucharest, 030018 Bucharest, Romania)

Abstract

Given the importance of perceived susceptibility to a disease in adopting preventive behaviors, and the negative impact of optimism bias on prevention, this paper aimed to explore to what extent comparative optimism bias (understood as the tendency to assess a lower probability for oneself to experience negative health events compared to others) is present in the specific context of the Covid-19 pandemic, in two countries with different profiles in terms of the spread of the disease: Italy and Romania. After identifying optimism bias in both countries, we tested whether it depends on respondents’ characteristics like gender, age, education, health status and whether or not they have the opportunity to work from home. We surveyed 1126 Romanians and 742 Italians, and found that optimism bias depends on self-reported health status, and that optimism bias increases with age. Inconclusive evidences were found regarding gender and education level, as well as the option to work from home.

Suggested Citation

  • Elena Druică & Fabio Musso & Rodica Ianole-Călin, 2020. "Optimism Bias during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Empirical Evidence from Romania and Italy," Games, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-15, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jgames:v:11:y:2020:i:3:p:39-:d:414819
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/11/3/39/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/11/3/39/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sarah Dryhurst & Claudia R. Schneider & John Kerr & Alexandra L. J. Freeman & Gabriel Recchia & Anne Marthe van der Bles & David Spiegelhalter & Sander van der Linden, 2020. "Risk perceptions of COVID-19 around the world," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(7-8), pages 994-1006, August.
    2. Dominic D. P. Johnson & James H. Fowler, 2011. "The evolution of overconfidence," Nature, Nature, vol. 477(7364), pages 317-320, September.
    3. Baruch Fischhoff & Gabrielle Wong‐Parodi & Dana Rose Garfin & E. Alison Holman & Roxane Cohen Silver, 2018. "Public Understanding of Ebola Risks: Mastering an Unfamiliar Threat," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(1), pages 71-83, January.
    4. Caroline Rudisill, 2013. "How do we handle new health risks? Risk perception, optimism, and behaviors regarding the H1N1 virus," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(8), pages 959-980, September.
    5. Branden B. Johnson, 2017. "Explaining Americans’ responses to dread epidemics: an illustration with Ebola in late 2014," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(10), pages 1338-1357, October.
    6. Ramona Ludolph & Peter J. Schulz, 2018. "Debiasing Health-Related Judgments and Decision Making: A Systematic Review," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 38(1), pages 3-13, January.
    7. Jones, Sandra C. & Waters, Louise & Holland, Omnia & Bevins, John & Iverson, Don, 2010. "Developing pandemic communication strategies: Preparation without panic," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 126-132, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zechen Zeng & Nobutoshi Nawa & Chie Hirama & Takeo Fujiwara, 2023. "Hedonic Risk Preference Associated with High-Risk Behaviors under COVID-19 Pandemic among Medical Students in Japan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(12), pages 1-13, June.
    2. Volker C. Franke & Charles N. Elliott, 2021. "Optimism and Social Resilience: Social Isolation, Meaninglessness, Trust, and Empathy in Times of COVID-19," Societies, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-17, April.
    3. Erica Freer & Quinn Keefer, 2022. "Optimism Bias and Perceptions of Behavioral Factors for Preventing Severe COVID-19 Complications," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 6(1), pages 11-20, December.
    4. Apergis, Nicholas, 2022. "Overconfidence and US stock market returns," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    5. Dariusz Dolinski & Wojciech Kulesza & Paweł Muniak & Barbara Dolinska & Ali Derakhshan & Tomasz Grzyb, 2021. "Research on Unrealistic Optimism among HoReCa Workers as a Possible Future Hotspot of Infections," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-15, November.
    6. Maria-Magdalena Roșu & Rodica Ianole-Călin & Raluca Dinescu & Anca Bratu & Răzvan-Mihail Papuc & Anastasia Cosma, 2021. "Understanding Consumer Stockpiling during the COVID-19 Outbreak through the Theory of Planned Behavior," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(16), pages 1-15, August.
    7. Andreea Orîndaru & Maria-Floriana Popescu & Ștefan-Claudiu Căescu & Florina Botezatu & Margareta Stela Florescu & Carmen-Cristina Runceanu-Albu, 2021. "Leveraging COVID-19 Outbreak for Shaping a More Sustainable Consumer Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-19, May.
    8. Wasim ul Rehman & Omur Saltik & Faryal Jalil & Suleyman Degirmen, 2024. "Viral decisions: unmasking the impact of COVID-19 info and behavioral quirks on investment choices," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-20, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kolotylo-Kulkarni, Malgorzata & Marakas, George M. & Xia, Weidong, 2024. "Understanding protective behavior and vaccination adoption among US individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic: A four-wave longitudinal study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    2. Hajar Mohd Salleh Sahimi & Nazirah Azman & Nik Ruzyanei Nik Jaafar & Tuti Iryani Mohd Daud & Azlin Baharudin & Ahmad Khaldun Ismail & Akramul Zikri Abdul Malek & Mohd Rohaizat Hassan & Azmawati Mohamm, 2021. "Health Anxiety and Its Correlations with Self-Perceived Risk and Attitude on COVID-19 among Malaysian Healthcare Workers during the Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-13, May.
    3. De Witte, Dries & Delporte, Margaux & Molenberghs, Geert & Verbeke, Geert & Demarest, Stefaan & Hoorens, Vera, 2023. "Self-uniqueness beliefs and adherence to recommended precautions. A 5-wave longitudinal COVID-19 study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 317(C).
    4. Thomas Jamieson & Dakota Caldwell & Barbara Gomez-Aguinaga & Cristián Doña-Reveco, 2021. "Race, Ethnicity, Nativity and Perceptions of Health Risk during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the US," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-18, October.
    5. Foliano, Francesca & Tonei, Valentina & Sevilla, Almudena, 2024. "Social restrictions, leisure and well-being," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    6. Ali Zackery & Joseph Amankwah-Amoah & Zahra Heidari Darani & Shiva Ghasemi, 2022. "COVID-19 Research in Business and Management: A Review and Future Research Agenda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-32, August.
    7. Garaus, Marion & Hudáková, Melánia, 2022. "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourists’ air travel intentions: The role of perceived health risk and trust in the airline," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    8. Enzo Cumbo & Giuseppe Gallina & Pietro Messina & Giuseppe Alessandro Scardina, 2023. "Filter Masks during the Second Phase of SARS-CoV-2: Study on Population," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-7, January.
    9. Sweldens, Steven & Puntoni, Stefano & Paolacci, Gabriele & Vissers, Maarten, 2014. "The bias in the bias: Comparative optimism as a function of event social undesirability," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 124(2), pages 229-244.
    10. Quitterie Roquebert & Jonathan Sicsic & Thomas Rapp, 2021. "Health measures and long-term care use in the European frail population," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 22(3), pages 405-423, April.
    11. Aida El-Far Cardo & Thomas Kraus & Andrea Kaifie, 2021. "Factors That Shape People’s Attitudes towards the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany—The Influence of MEDIA, Politics and Personal Characteristics," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-14, July.
    12. Neyse, Levent & Bosworth, Steven & Ring, Patrick & Schmidt, Ulrich, 2016. "Overconfidence, Incentives and Digit Ratio," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 130145, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    13. Jina Choo & Sooyeon Park & Songwhi Noh, 2021. "Associations of COVID-19 Knowledge and Risk Perception with the Full Adoption of Preventive Behaviors in Seoul," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-14, November.
    14. Ray Saadaoui Mallek & Mohamed Albaity, 2019. "Individual differences and cognitive reflection across gender and nationality the case of the United Arab Emirates," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 1567965-156, January.
    15. Kathleen McColl & Marion Debin & Cecile Souty & Caroline Guerrisi & Clement Turbelin & Alessandra Falchi & Isabelle Bonmarin & Daniela Paolotti & Chinelo Obi & Jim Duggan & Yamir Moreno & Ania Wisniak, 2021. "Are People Optimistically Biased about the Risk of COVID-19 Infection? Lessons from the First Wave of the Pandemic in Europe," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-23, December.
    16. Alfonso Gastelum-Strozzi & Claudia Infante-Castañeda & Juan Guillermo Figueroa-Perea & Ingris Peláez-Ballestas, 2021. "Heterogeneity of COVID-19 Risk Perception: A Socio-Mathematical Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-14, October.
    17. Kelly R Moran & Sara Y Del Valle, 2016. "A Meta-Analysis of the Association between Gender and Protective Behaviors in Response to Respiratory Epidemics and Pandemics," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-25, October.
    18. Shamima Akter & Shafia Shaheen, 2021. "Risk perception and the practices towards covid-19 among the garment workers in Bangladesh," Journal of Community Positive Practices, Catalactica NGO, issue 4, pages 61-85.
    19. Michael Muthukrishna & Joseph Henrich & Wataru Toyokawa & Takeshi Hamamura & Tatsuya Kameda & Steven J Heine, 2018. "Overconfidence is universal? Elicitation of Genuine Overconfidence (EGO) procedure reveals systematic differences across domain, task knowledge, and incentives in four populations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(8), pages 1-30, August.
    20. Chen, Chien-fei & Nelson, Hannah & Xu, Xiaojing & Bonilla, Gregory & Jones, Nicholas, 2021. "Beyond technology adoption: Examining home energy management systems, energy burdens and climate change perceptions during COVID-19 pandemic," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jgames:v:11:y:2020:i:3:p:39-:d:414819. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.