Pluralistic Ignorance in COVID-19 Preventive Behaviours: The Role of Interventions

Abstract

There has been plenty of research done on pluralistic ignorance and behavioural interventions independently. However, there has not been sufficient research in pluralistic ignorance using behavioural interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The experiment explored the role of COVID-19 preventive behaviours demonstrated by university students and whether exposure to pluralistic ignorance interventions such as social norms marketing and personalised normative feedback (PNF) reduced the behaviours. The study was conducted in an online setting using a survey via Qualtrics. The participants were university students and recent graduates aged between 18 and 25 that mostly attended universities in the US and UK. 208 university students completed part 1, and 96 participants (control = 27, personalised 35, social norms = 34) answered both parts of the experiment. The first part of the experiment measured self-other bias via 14 Likert scale questions. In the second part, researchers randomly allocated participants to one of three groups: control, PNF or social norms marketing, then asked to fill in the same survey as part 1. The findings showed that people rated themselves higher than their peers in more likely to display COVID-19 preventive health behaviours, and hence pluralistic ignorance occurs. In addition, there was no significant effect between time and conditions though participants in the control condition had higher pluralistic ignorance; all groups decreased over time by similar amounts. However, exposure to social norms marketing reduced pluralistic ignorance than personalised normative feedback implying no significant differences between both measures. Therefore, the study illustrates the importance of demonstrating COVID-19 preventive behaviours in a drastic time in modern history.

Keywords: pluralistic ignorance, behavioural interventions, COVID-19, preventive behaviours, social norms marketing, personalised normative feedback

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