Lunch Hour Lecture | Managing Covid19 – how could we have done (and do) better?

Human behaviour is at the heart of managing pandemic infections such as Covid19, for example wearing facemasks indoors when transmission is high and self-isolating when ill or testing positive for Covid19. Behavioural science helps us to understand why such behaviours do or do not occur and to identify key influences on behaviour: people’s capabilities, motivations and/or opportunities to engage in certain behaviours. This is summarised in the COM-B (Capability-Opportunity-Motivation-Behaviour) model which is linked to a broader framework for designing and evaluating behavioural interventions and policies, the Behaviour Change Wheel.

COVID-19 has shown that no person, community or nation is an island. Combining lessons learnt during the pandemic with behavioural and social science evidence allows us to improve our pandemic policies and societal resilience.