Nudging to increase hand hygiene during the COVID-19 pandemic: A field experiment.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has made a significant impact on citizens all around the world In order to prevent the spread of the virus, one of the most important measures is practicing hand hygiene We see nudging, a technique from behavioural economics, as a possible way to increase hand hygiene without relying on mandatory measures In this field experiment, we test two nudge types that previously have been applied successfully, a salience nudge and a gain frame nudge, in a new context (i e , shopping street) Four hundred nineteen shoppers were observed during a counterbalanced experiment in three stores, where a disinfectant dispenser was accompanied by a salience nudge, gain frame nudge, or no nudge Data on dispenser usage was analysed using mixed models to account for groups entering the store When compared to the control condition, no significant effect of either nudge on participants using the disinfectant was found This could be caused by the increased attention for hand hygiene during COVID-19, because the baseline for practicing hand hygiene in our study was much higher than that in previous pre-COVID-19 studies Alternatively, it is possible that shoppers already disinfected their hands before leaving the house, as advised by the government Our results suggest that stores, and governments, should look for other measures than the tested nudges to improve hand hygiene in the shopping street during the COVID-19 pandemic, either combining different nudges and/or using less subtle methods (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved) Abstract (French) La pandemie de COVID-19 a eu d importantes repercussions sur les populations du monde entier L une des mesures les plus importantes pour prevenir la dissemination du virus est la bonne hygiene des mains Nous voyons la mise en oeuvre d incitations douces (nudge), technique empruntee a l economie comportementale, comme une facon d accroitre l hygiene des mains sans imposer de mesures obligatoires Dans cette experience de terrain, on a evalue deux types d incitations douces, aussi appelees << coups de pouce , qui avaient ete auparavant mis en application avec succes -une incitation par la saillance et une incitation basee sur le gain -, mais dans un nouveau contexte (c -a-d , une rue commercante) On a observe 419 personnes faire des emplettes durant une experience contrebalancee dans trois magasins ayant chacun un distributeur de desinfectant accompagne d une incitation par la saillance, d une incitation basee sur le gain, et un autre sans incitation Les donnees sur l usage des distributeurs ont ete analysees au moyen de modeles mixtes pour tenir compte des groupes entrant dans chacun des commerces En faisant des comparaisons avec la condition de controle, on n a constate aucun effet significatif des deux incitations douces sur l usage du desinfectant parmi les participants Ce resultat pourrait etre attribuable a l importance accrue accordee a l hygiene des mains depuis la pandemie de la COVID-19, car les donnees de base de notre etude pour la pratique de mesures d hygiene pour les mains etaient de beaucoup plus elevees que dans le cadre d etudes realisees avant la pandemie De plus, il est possible que les clients s etaient deja desinfecte les mains avant de quitter la maison, comme le conseillent les gouvernements Nos resultats suggerent que les commerces et les gouvernements devraient trouver des mesures autres que les incitations douces testees pour ameliorer l hygiene des mains dans les rues commercantes durant la pandemie de COVID-19, en combinant plusieurs incitations ou en utilisant des moyens moins subtils (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved) Impact Statement Public Significance Statement: During the COVID-19 pandemic, encouraging hand hygiene is very important We investigated two nudging techniques to improve the use of a disinfectant dispenser in a shopping street, namely drawing attention to it (i e , salience nudge) and emphasising the gains of hand hygiene (i e , gain frame nudge) We found that these nudging interventions did not increase hand hygiene People who want to increase hand hygiene should therefore focus on other, perhaps less subtle, interventions and/or combine this with nudging interventions (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)