Spontaneous social distancing in response to a simulated epidemic : a virtual experiment

Kleczkowski, Adam and Maharaj, Savi and Rasmussen, Susan and Williams, Lynn and Cairns, Nicole (2015) Spontaneous social distancing in response to a simulated epidemic : a virtual experiment. BMC Public Health, 15. 973. ISSN 1471-2458

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    Abstract

    Studies of social distancing during epidemics have found that the strength of the response can have a decisive impact on the outcome. In previous work we developed a model of social distancing driven by individuals’ risk attitude, a parameter which determines the extent to which social contacts are reduced in response to a given infection level. We showed by simulation that a strong response, driven by a highly cautious risk attitude, can quickly suppress an epidemic. However, a moderately cautious risk attitude gives weak control and, by prolonging the epidemic with out reducing its impact, may yield a worse outcome than doing nothing. In real societies, social distancing may arise spontaneously from individual choices rather than being imposed centrally. There is little data available about this as opportunistic data collection during epidemics is difficult. Our study uses a simulated epidemic in a computer game setting to measure the social distancing response.

    Author(s):Kleczkowski, Adam ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1384-4352, Maharaj, Savi, Rasmussen, Susan ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6408-0028, Williams, Lynn ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2735-9219 and Cairns, Nicole
    Item type:Article
    ID code:54381
    Keywords:epidemics, social distancing, agent based models, participatory simulation, virtual experiments, Psychology, Psychology(all)
    Subjects:Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > Psychology
    Department:Faculty of Science > Mathematics and Statistics
    Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) > School of Psychological Science and Health > Psychology
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:30 Sep 2015 09:23
    Last modified:03 Oct 2019 01:35
    Related URLs:
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/54381
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