Risk Perception and Protective Behaviors During the Rise of the COVID-19 Outbreak in Italy.

ABSTRACT: Risk perception is important in determining health-protective behavior. During the rise of the COVID-19 epidemic, we tested a comprehensive structural equation model of risk perception to explain adherence to protective behaviors in a crisis context using a survey of 572 Italian citizens. We identified two categories of protective behaviors, labeled promoting hygiene and cleaning, and avoiding social closeness. Social norms and risk perceptions were the more proximal antecedents of both categories. Cultural worldviews, affect, and experience of COVID-19 were the more distal predictors. Promoting hygiene and cleaning was triggered by the negative affective attitude toward coronavirus and mediated by an affective appraisal of risk. The deliberate dimension of risk perception (perceived likel

SUBMITTER: Savadori L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7838090 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature