How reported outbreak data can shape individual behavior in a social world.

ABSTRACT: Agencies reporting on disease outbreaks face many choices about what to report and the scale of its dissemination. Reporting impacts an epidemic by influencing individual decisions directly, and the social network in which they are made. We simulated a dynamic multiplex network model-with coupled infection and communication layers-to examine behavioral impacts from the nature and scale of epidemiological information reporting. We explored how adherence to protective behaviors (social distancing) can be facilitated through epidemiological reporting, social construction of perceived risk, and local monitoring of direct connections, but eroded via social reassurance. We varied reported information (total active cases, daily new cases, hospitalizations, hospital capacity exceeded, or deaths) a

SUBMITTER: Pritchard AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9365202 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature