IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i21p11341-d667088.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fear of Infection and the Common Good: COVID-19 and the First Italian Lockdown

Author

Listed:
  • Lloyd Balbuena

    (Department of Psychiatry, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 0W8, Canada)

  • Merylin Monaro

    (Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, 35151 Padua, Italy)

Abstract

In the first quarter of 2020, Italy became one of the earliest hotspots of COVID-19 infection, and the government imposed a lockdown. During the lockdown, an online survey of 2053 adults was conducted that asked about health behaviors and about the psychological and overall impact of COVID-19. The present study is a secondary analysis of that data. We hypothesized that self-control, higher socio-economic status, existing health conditions, and fear of infection were all inversely related to actions (or intentions) that violated the lockdown (i.e., infractions). Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), we found that only the fear of infection significantly dissuaded people from violating lockdown rules. Since it is not practical or ethical to sow a fear of infection, our study indicates that enacting rules and enforcing them firmly and fairly are important tools for containing the infection. This may become more important as vaccines become more widely available and people lose their fear of infection.

Suggested Citation

  • Lloyd Balbuena & Merylin Monaro, 2021. "Fear of Infection and the Common Good: COVID-19 and the First Italian Lockdown," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-10, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:21:p:11341-:d:667088
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11341/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11341/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hair, Joe F. & Howard, Matt C. & Nitzl, Christian, 2020. "Assessing measurement model quality in PLS-SEM using confirmatory composite analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 101-110.
    2. Scott R. Baker & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis & Stephen J. Terry, 2020. "COVID-Induced Economic Uncertainty," NBER Working Papers 26983, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Anton D. Lowenberg, 1990. "Neoclassical Economics as a Theory of Politics and Institutions," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 9(3), pages 619-639, Winter.
    4. Malik Sallam & Deema Dababseh & Alaa’ Yaseen & Ayat Al-Haidar & Nidaa A. Ababneh & Faris G. Bakri & Azmi Mahafzah, 2020. "Conspiracy Beliefs Are Associated with Lower Knowledge and Higher Anxiety Levels Regarding COVID-19 among Students at the University of Jordan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-15, July.
    5. Michael Bang Petersen, 2021. "COVID lesson: trust the public with hard truths," Nature, Nature, vol. 598(7880), pages 237-237, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Wright, Austin L. & Sonin, Konstantin & Driscoll, Jesse & Wilson, Jarnickae, 2020. "Poverty and economic dislocation reduce compliance with COVID-19 shelter-in-place protocols," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 544-554.
    2. Lewkowicz, Jacek & Woźniak, Michał & Wrzesiński, Michał, 2022. "COVID-19 and erosion of democracy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    3. Mai Mostafa Awad & Abd‘Elazez Hashem & Hend Mohamed Naguib, 2022. "The Impact of Lean Management Practices on Economic Sustainability in Services Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-27, July.
    4. Kumar, Anand & Priya, Bhawna & Srivastava, Samir K., 2021. "Response to the COVID-19: Understanding implications of government lockdown policies," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 76-94.
    5. Miescu, Mirela & Rossi, Raffaele, 2021. "COVID-19-induced shocks and uncertainty," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    6. Bakas, Dimitrios & Triantafyllou, Athanasios, 2020. "Commodity price volatility and the economic uncertainty of pandemics," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    7. Morais, Ana Catarina & Ishida, Akira & Matsuda, Ruriko, 2024. "Ethical food consumption drivers in Japan. A S–O-R framework application using PLS-SEM with a MGA assessment based on clustering," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    8. Kautish, Pradeep & Paço, Arminda & Thaichon, Park, 2022. "Sustainable consumption and plastic packaging: Relationships among product involvement, perceived marketplace influence and choice behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    9. Vladimir Arčabić, 2020. "Koronakriza i što Hrvatska može naučiti iz dosadašnjih recesija," Tradicionalni skup Hrvatskog društva ekonomista u Opatiji - objavljena poglavlja, in: Josip Tica & Katarina Bačić (ed.), Ekonomska politika u 2021. godini - Hrvatska poslije pandemije, volume 28, chapter 1, pages 21-58, Hrvatsko društvo ekonomista (Croatian Society of Economists).
    10. Zhikun Ding & Xinyue Huang & Xinrui Wang & Qiaohui Chen & Jiasheng Zhang & Zezhou Wu, 2024. "Investigating the Determinants of Construction Stakeholders’ Intention to Use Construction and Demolition Waste Recycling Products Based on the S-O-R Model in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-17, March.
    11. Fraser Summerfield & Livio Di Matteo, 2021. "Influenza Pandemics and Macroeconomic Fluctuations in Recent Economic History," Working Papers 210002, Canadian Centre for Health Economics.
    12. Sangryeong Lee & Soo-Kyoung Lee & Jin-Woo Park, 2024. "The Effect of Service Quality and Sustainability Practices on Brand Equity: The Case of Korean Air Passengers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-20, May.
    13. Yanguas Parra, Paola & Hauenstein, Christian & Oei, Pao-Yu, 2021. "The death valley of coal – Modelling COVID-19 recovery scenarios for steam coal markets," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    14. Jianchun Fang & Giray Gozgor & Sercan Pekel, 2020. "Where You Export Matters: Measuring Uncertainty in Turkey's Export Markets," CESifo Working Paper Series 8404, CESifo.
    15. Brum, Matias & De Rosa, Mauricio, 2021. "Too little but not too late: nowcasting poverty and cash transfers’ incidence during COVID-19’s crisis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    16. Tarcia Camily Cavalcante Quezado & Nuno Fortes & William Quezado Figueiredo Cavalcante, 2022. "The Influence of Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Ethics on Brand Fidelity: The Importance of Brand Love and Brand Attitude," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-20, March.
    17. Adekoya, Oluwasegun B. & Oliyide, Johnson A. & Noman, Ambreen, 2021. "The volatility connectedness of the EU carbon market with commodity and financial markets in time- and frequency-domain: The role of the U.S. economic policy uncertainty," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    18. Talwar, Shalini & Kaur, Puneet & Escobar, Octavio & Lan, Sai, 2022. "Virtual reality tourism to satisfy wanderlust without wandering: An unconventional innovation to promote sustainability," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 128-143.
    19. Matías Brum & Mauricio de Rosa, 2020. "Too little but not too late. Nowcasting poverty and cash transfers' incidence in Uruguay during COVID-19's crisis," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 20-09, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    20. Ashraf Sharif & Saira Hanif Soroya & Shakil Ahmad & Khalid Mahmood, 2021. "Antecedents of Self-Disclosure on Social Networking Sites (SNSs): A Study of Facebook Users," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-21, January.

    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:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:21:p:11341-:d:667088. 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.