Behaviours and attitudes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: insights from a cross-national Facebook survey

Daniela Perrotta, André Grow, Francesco Rampazzo, Jorge Cimentada, Emanuele Del Fava, Sofia Gil-Clavel, Emilio Zagheni

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Background: In the absence of medical treatment and vaccination, individual behaviours are key to curbing the spread of COVID-19. Here we describe efforts to collect attitudinal and behavioural data and disseminate insights to increase situational awareness and inform interventions. Methods: We developed a rapid data collection and monitoring system based on a cross-national online survey, the “COVID-19 Health Behavior Survey”. Respondent recruitment occurred via targeted Facebook advertisements in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. We investigated how the threat perceptions of COVID-19, the confidence in the preparedness of organisations to deal with the pandemic, and the adoption of preventive and social distancing behaviours are associated with respondents’ demographic characteristics. Results: We analysed 71,612 questionnaires collected between March 13-April 19, 2020. We found substantial spatio-temporal heterogeneity across countries at different stages of the pandemic and with different control strategies in place. Respondents rapidly adopted the use of face masks when they were not yet mandatory. We observed a clear pattern in threat perceptions, sharply increasing from a personal level to national and global levels. Although personal threat perceptions were comparatively low, all respondents significantly increased hand hygiene. We found gender-specific patterns: women showed higher threat perceptions, lower confidence in the healthcare system, and were more likely to adopt preventive behaviours. Finally, we also found that older people perceived higher threat to themselves, while all respondents were strongly concerned about their family. Conclusions: Rapid population surveys conducted via Facebook allow us to monitor behavioural changes, adoption of protective measures, and compliance with recommended practices. As the pandemic progresses and new waves of infections are a threatening reality, timely insights from behavioural and attitudinal data are crucial to guide the decision-making process.
Original languageEnglish
Article number17
JournalEPJ Data Science
Volume10
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2021
Externally publishedYes

Funding

This study was funded with support from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, which is part of the Max Planck Society. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. We would like to thank all the participants who took the time to voluntarily complete our survey, and the staff and colleagues of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research who contributed to the realization of this project, in particular K. McCann, B. Michaelis, D. Vieregg, S. Leek, C.I. Ruhland, M.J. Bijlsma, M. Lerch, M. R. Nepomuceno, N. Todd, and J. Wilde. FR acknowledges support from the Economic and Social Research Council (South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership; Project: ES/P000673/1) and the Leverhulme Trust through the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science.

FundersFunder number
Economic and Social Research Council (South Coast Doctoral Training PartnershipES/P000673/1
Max Planck Institute For Demographic Research
Leverhulme Trust
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

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