Why do fewer young adults follow the rules on COVID-19 prevention?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-09-29 09:01

International

Younger adults take significantly more coronavirus risks - like not wearing masks or hand-washing enough - than older people, finds a UK study that tested this assumption. Against expectations, the age variation wasn’t explained by differences in the objective risk of Covid-19 complications, or attitudes toward risk. Numerical ability, though, partly accounted for the variation: younger adults scored higher on numeracy, and took more risks. The authors speculate that being better with numbers may translate to better understanding Covid-19 probabilities, so younger adults may resist protective behaviours based on the lower serious health risk.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

The coronavirus pandemic is a serious health risk that has impacted many lives. This paper investigates whether older and younger adults differed in their adoption of preventative behaviours and whether these differences are caused by differences in perceived and objective risk of coronavirus-related illness, and people’s numerical ability. The results show that younger adults took more risks than older adults, partially mediated by numerical ability and risk perception for themselves and others. Our findings indicate that differences in adopting preventative behaviours are complex and likely involve multiple factors in explaining behaviour.

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Journal/
conference: Royal Society Open Science

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Essex, UK; University of Edinburgh, UK

Funder: This work was supported by the University of Essex’ Psychology Department Postgraduate Fund.

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