Cognitive biases in communication and prevention of covid-19

Abstract

Introduction: For governments to promote public health effectively in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, they must encourage measures and restrictions on the behaviour of their citizens without falling into a police state. Behavioural science provides a number of explanations, such as cognitive bias, that can serve as a starting point for understanding non-compliance with health measures. Methodology: To do so, a review of cognitive biases that disrupt the decision-making process is carried out, including loss aversion, carry-over effect, optimistic self-perception or availability.Likewise, some measures such as the design of communications or nudge tools to face them are presented. Results: Despite the attempts to raise awareness through informative and educational campaigns, it is possible to include other tools that respond to the problems of attention or decision making of the population, based on the simplification, framing and adaptation of the contents of the messages to the target audience, as well as the inclusion of elements that facilitate the adoption of new habits. The progressive return to habits that require social contact means that public agents are reinventing themselves in the process of promoting new lifestyles, including hand disinfection, the use of masks or interpersonal distance.