Presentation
Adherence Engineering and Pandemic Mitigation in a University Population
Event Type
Lecture
Virtual
Cognitive Engineering & Decision Making
TimeWednesday, October 27th1:15pm - 1:30pm EDT
LocationVirtual 1
DescriptionThis exploratory research provides an assessment of external factors influencing nonadherence to COVID-19 safety behavior in a university student population. Survey data was collected from 127 undergraduate students at the University of Utah. Participants were presented with common nonadherence scenarios and reported which of the given factors, each corresponding to an adherence engineering principle from Drews (2013), was most influential to their decision not to adhere to safety guidelines. Overall, the most significant factor for nonadherence was cognitive effort. However, individual scenarios displayed alternative factor majorities including smart defaults and implementing nudging. This research demonstrates that adherence engineering, most notably minimizing cognitive effort, implementing nudging, and creating smart defaults, can be used by universities to create programs which help to promote COVID-19 safety behavior as the pandemic continues.
