| Summary: | Covid-19, which was first announced as a pandemic in early 2020, has recently mutated into a new fast-spreading version. From past lockdowns and coronavirus statistics, it is evident that preventive measures can help reduce the number of daily positive cases. Often, the adoption of behaviors to avoid a threat is influenced by how people perceive it. Thus, in this paper, I present results from a nationally balanced cross-sectional survey (N = 300) on how people perceive the risk of covid-19 infection and how those perceptions associate with preventive behaviors in ten cities across the UK.
The study reports that although the public is highly concerned all around the UK, people in Cardiff and Edinburgh perceive the highest risk of catching the virus. Pooled across all cities, trust in scientists and scientific knowledge, hearing about covid-19 from friends and family, having a pro-social attitude, self and collective efficacy beliefs, all emerge significant in predicting the perceived risk of coronavirus infection. Further, in the demographics-only pooled model, females appear to perceive higher risks than males. The results vary considerably across cities and therefore each city has a unique set of significant predictors. However, age, education, knowledge, and broad value orientations do not emerge significant in any of the models.
The research further identifies that how people perceive coronavirus as a risk significantly influences their adoption of an index of precautions in all ten cities. Thus, well-suited communications and policies can help form accurate risk perceptions in each city, thereby influencing the adoption rate of protective behaviors and efficient management of the virus.
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