ArticleRoyal Society open science2020
Changes in risk perception and self-reported protective behaviour during the first week of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
Article in Royal Society open science, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 372 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
372 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Does COVID-19 vaccination affect risk perception and adherence to preventive behaviors? A systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- Risk Perception towards COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Qualitative Synthesis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Are Fear Campaigns Effective for Increasing Adherence to COVID-Related Mitigation Measures?International journal of behavioral medicine · 2023Trial
- Promoting Hand Hygiene During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Parallel Randomized Trial for the Optimization of the Soapp App.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2023Trial
- Improving Hand Hygiene Behavior Using a Novel Theory-Based Intervention During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2022Trial
- Trial
- Trends and determinants of pneumococcal vaccine uptake among U.S. adults, 2019-2024: a pooled cross-sectional analysis.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Emotions, preventive measures, and risk perception in post-emergency COVID-19: a cross-sectional study in Italian university staff during the seasonal vaccination campaign.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Article
- Sustained Shifts in Dietary Supplement Use Years After COVID-19: A Post-Pandemic Evaluation of Behaviors, Perceptions, and Predictors of Change in Jordan.Risk management and healthcare policy · 2026Article
- The effect of government information release on public protective behaviors during the emerging infectious diseases epidemic in China.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Are you afraid of COVID-19? Motivation and engagement in infection-prevention behaviour in a UK community cohort during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic.British journal of health psychology · 2025Article
- Psychometric Evaluation of the Over-Cleanliness Scale (OCS) Amid Covid-19 Pandemic and the Role of Perceived Stress and OCD Proneness on Over-Cleanliness: A Cross-Sectional Study.Health science reports · 2025Article
- Patterns of acute watery diarrhea in Fiji: understanding the implications for water and sanitation services.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Attribution, risk perception, and response to workplace violence: a scenario-based study of triage nurses.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- COVID-19 Exposure, Protective Measures, Symptom Assessment, and Risk Perception Among Healthcare Workers in Peru: A Longitudinal Cohort Study (2020-2021).Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2025Article
- Understanding the interplay between epidemiological and social cognitve drivers of behaviour change during the Covid-19 pandemic.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Optimism Bias Among Gun Owners: Associations With Firearm Injury Prevention Practices and Policy Support.Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education · 2025Article
- Risk perception of emergency medical technicians in biological disasters: a comparison between COVID-19 and Non-COVID-19 cases.BMC emergency medicine · 2025Article
- For Better or Worse? Subjective Expectations and Cost-Benefit Trade-Offs in Health Behavior: An Application to Lockdown Compliance in the United Kingdom.Health economics · 2025Article
312 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Efforts to change behaviour are critical in minimizing the spread of highly transmissible pandemics such as COVID-19. However, it is unclear whether individuals are aware of disease risk and alter their behaviour early in the pandemic. We investigated risk perception and self-reported engagement in protective behaviours in 1591 United States-based individuals cross-sectionally and longitudinally over the first week of the pandemic. Subjects demonstrated growing awareness of risk and reported engaging in protective behaviours with increasing frequency but underestimated their risk of infection relative to the average person in the country. Social distancing and hand washing were most strongly predicted by the perceived probability of personally being infected. However, a subgroup of individuals perceived low risk and did not engage in these behaviours. Our results highlight the importance of risk perception in early interventions during large-scale pandemics.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.