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Selecting measures in the COVID-19 crisis : the effect of perspective and information structure

Rothlübbers, E. (2021) Selecting measures in the COVID-19 crisis : the effect of perspective and information structure.

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Abstract:During the COVID-19 pandemic, people have to weigh a lot of information to make sense of all the measures. This study examined whether information structure and a person’s perspective have an influence on how people evaluate the effectiveness of measures during the pandemic. 121 participants received three perspectives and the same COVID-related information, which was either structured or unstructured. They assessed 9 different measures, categorised as ‘Social’, ‘Economic’, or ‘Reduce Infections’. The results show that receiving structured information led to evaluating the ‘Social’ measures as more effective. The single perspectives did not lead to higher assessments of those measures which are more in favour of that particular party. The ‘mayor’ participants, who had to combine multiple perspectives, regarded the ‘Economic’ measures as more effective than the ‘restaurant’ group. This could be explained by the restaurant owners being less optimistic about fighting the COVID crisis. We recommend including further perspectives and reminding participants more often of their allocated perspective. Including more perspectives could ensure that the difference is actually ‘single vs. multiple’ perspectives and does not relate only to the chosen perspectives. We recommend further visualising the structured information, for example through a map where the connections between information are clearer.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:77 psychology
Programme:Psychology BSc (56604)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/87444
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