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 risks decisions, such as cognitive biases, affect heuristic, mental models of risk and trust. The goal is to raise the debate about the difficulty of risk communication in inducing attitudinal and behavioral change regarding protective measures. Talking about morality and ethics seems to be less than ever obsolete and more than ever necessary, it may even be seen like a ‘spare tire’ after one and a half year of risk communication and almost four million deaths. Maybe it is time to think in terms of resilience at all levels, from the citizen of humanity to the highest institutions.