IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/gm6js.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Field Evidence of the Effects of Pro-sociality and Transparency on COVID-19 App Attractiveness

Author

Listed:
  • Dooley, Samuel
  • Turjeman, Dana

    (University of Michigan)

  • Dickerson, John P
  • Redmiles, Elissa M.

    (Microsoft Research)

Abstract

COVID-19 exposure-notification apps have struggled to gain adoption. Existing literature posits as potential causes of this low adoption: privacy concerns, insufficient data transparency, and the type of appeal used to pitch the pro-social behavior of installing the app. In a field experiment, we advertised CovidDefense, Louisiana's COVID-19 exposure-notification app, at the time it was released. We find that all three hypothesized factors -- privacy, data transparency, and appeals framing -- relate to app adoption, even when controlling for age, gender, and community density. Specifically, we find that collective-good appeals are effective in fostering pro-social COVID-19 app behavior in the field. Our results empirically support existing policy guidance on the use of collective-good appeals and offer real-world evidence in the on-going debate on the efficacy of such appeals. Further, we offer nuanced findings regarding the efficacy of transparency -- about both privacy and data collection -- in encouraging health technology adoption and pro-social COVID-19 behavior. Our results may aid in fostering pro-social public-health-related behavior and for the broader debate regarding privacy and data transparency in digital healthcare.

Suggested Citation

  • Dooley, Samuel & Turjeman, Dana & Dickerson, John P & Redmiles, Elissa M., 2021. "Field Evidence of the Effects of Pro-sociality and Transparency on COVID-19 App Attractiveness," SocArXiv gm6js, Center for Open Science.
  • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:gm6js
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/gm6js
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/60f985bb9e68290189393ea6/
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/gm6js?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ying Fan & A. Yeşim Orhun & Dana Turjeman, 2020. "Heterogeneous Actions, Beliefs, Constraints and Risk Tolerance During the COVID-19 Pandemic," NBER Working Papers 27211, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Séverine Toussaert, 2021. "Upping uptake of COVID contact tracing apps," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(2), pages 183-184, February.
    3. repec:cup:judgdm:v:15:y:2020:i:6:p:1037-1043 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Sarah J Barber & Hyunji Kim & Derek Isaacowitz, 2021. "COVID-19 Worries and Behavior Changes in Older and Younger Men and Women," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 76(2), pages 17-23.
    5. Simon Munzert & Peter Selb & Anita Gohdes & Lukas F. Stoetzer & Will Lowe, 2021. "Tracking and promoting the usage of a COVID-19 contact tracing app," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(2), pages 247-255, February.
    6. Feng-Yang Kuo & Cathy Lin & Meng-Hsiang Hsu, 2007. "Assessing Gender Differences in Computer Professionals’ Self-Regulatory Efficacy Concerning Information Privacy Practices," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 73(2), pages 145-160, June.
    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. Rehse, Dominik & Tremöhlen, Felix, 2022. "Fostering participation in digital contact tracing," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    2. Foliano, Francesca & Tonei, Valentina & Sevilla, Almudena, 2024. "Social restrictions, leisure and well-being," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    3. Anindya Ghose & Beibei Li & Meghanath Macha & Chenshuo Sun & Natasha Ying Zhang Foutz, 2020. "Trading Privacy for the Greater Social Good: How Did America React During COVID-19?," Papers 2006.05859, arXiv.org.
    4. Kim, Suji & Lee, Sujin & Ko, Eunjeong & Jang, Kitae & Yeo, Jiho, 2021. "Changes in car and bus usage amid the COVID-19 pandemic: Relationship with land use and land price," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    5. Tuchen, Stefan & Nazemi, Mohsen & Ghelfi-Waechter, Signe Maria & Kim, Euiyoung & Hofer, Franziska & Chen, Ching-Fu & Arora, Mohit & Santema, Sicco & Blessing, Lucienne, 2023. "Experiences from the international frontlines: An exploration of the perceptions of airport employees during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    6. Abel Brodeur & David Gray & Anik Islam & Suraiya Bhuiyan, 2021. "A literature review of the economics of COVID‐19," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(4), pages 1007-1044, September.
    7. Xu,Yuanwei & Delius,Antonia Johanna Sophie & Pape,Utz Johann, 2022. "Gender Differences in Household Coping Strategies for COVID-19 in Kenya," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9959, The World Bank.
    8. Maxim Ananyev & Michael Poyker & Yuan Tian, 2021. "The safest time to fly: pandemic response in the era of Fox News," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(3), pages 775-802, July.
    9. Yating Chuang & John Chung-En Liu, 2020. "Who wears a mask? Gender differences in risk behaviors in the COVID-19 early days in Taiwan," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(4), pages 2619-2627.
    10. Paul Bokern & Jona Linde & Arno Riedl & Peter Werner, 2023. "The Robustness of Preferences during a Crisis: The Case of Covid-19," CESifo Working Paper Series 10595, CESifo.
    11. Claire Greene & Ellen A. Merry & Joanna Stavins, 2021. "Has COVID Changed Consumer Payment Behavior?," Working Papers 21-12, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    12. Bettina Distel & Holger Koelmann & Ralf Plattfaut & Jörg Becker, 2022. "Watch who you trust! A structured literature review to build a typology of e-government risks," Information Systems and e-Business Management, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 789-818, December.
    13. Sophie Cockcroft & Saphira Rekker, 2016. "The relationship between culture and information privacy policy," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 26(1), pages 55-72, February.
    14. Francesco Sarracino & Talita Greyling & Kelsey J. O'Connor & Chiara Peroni & Stephanie Rossouw, 2021. "Trust predicts compliance to Covid-19 containment policies: evidence from ten countries using big data," Department of Economics University of Siena 858, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    15. Jungwon Min, 2020. "Does social trust slow down or speed up the transmission of COVID-19?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(12), pages 1-19, December.
    16. Yulin Hswen & Ulrich Nguemdjo & Elad Yom-Tov & Gregory M Marcus & Bruno Ventelou, 2022. "Individuals’ willingness to provide geospatial global positioning system (GPS) data from their smartphone during the COVID-19 pandemic," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-8, December.
    17. Rehse, Dominik & Tremöhlen, Felix, 2020. "Fostering participation in digital public health interventions: The case of digital contact tracing," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-076, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    18. Janssen, Aljoscha & Shapiro, Matthew H., 2021. "Does precise case disclosure limit precautionary behavior? Evidence from COVID-19 in Singapore," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 700-714.
    19. P. Battiston & M. Menegatti, 2022. "Interaction in Prevention: A General Theory and an Application to COVID-19 Pandemic," Economics Department Working Papers 2022-EP02, Department of Economics, Parma University (Italy).
    20. Raghu Raman & Krishnashree Achuthan & Ricardo Vinuesa & Prema Nedungadi, 2021. "COVIDTAS COVID-19 Tracing App Scale—An Evaluation Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-19, March.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:osf:socarx:gm6js. 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: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.org .

    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.