Risk Perception Biases and the Resilience of Ethics for Complying with COVID-19-Pandemic-Related Safety Measures

Abstract

This perspective paper presents factors that bias COVID-19-related risk judgments and risk decisions, such as cognitive biases, affect heuristics, mental models of risk and trust. The goal is to gain knowledge about the difficulty of risk communication in inducing attitudinal and behavioral changes regarding protective measures. Talking about morality and ethics appears to be less obsolete and more necessary than ever; it could even be seen as a ‘spare tire’ after one and a half years of risk communication and almost 4 million deaths. Perhaps it is time to think in terms of resilience at all levels, from the citizen of humanity to the highest institutions.

Keywords

• Risk perception
• resilience
• ethics
• mental models of risk
• trust
• COVID-19