Considering the Role of Behavioural Fatigue in the COVID-19 Lockdown Debates in Great Britain: A Retrospective Analysis of a National Survey Assessing the Relationships between Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, and Behaviour

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the term “behavioural fatigue” became the centre of policy debates in Great Britain. These debates involved deciding when to go into lockdown and whether behavioural interventions could be effective. Behavioural interventions can only succeed where people’s Capabilities...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Saval Khanal, Kelly Ann Schmidtke, Kaloyan Haralampiev, Ivo Vlaev
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-09-01
Series:Behavioral Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/14/9/852
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850258380708380672
author Saval Khanal
Kelly Ann Schmidtke
Kaloyan Haralampiev
Ivo Vlaev
author_facet Saval Khanal
Kelly Ann Schmidtke
Kaloyan Haralampiev
Ivo Vlaev
author_sort Saval Khanal
collection DOAJ
description During the COVID-19 pandemic, the term “behavioural fatigue” became the centre of policy debates in Great Britain. These debates involved deciding when to go into lockdown and whether behavioural interventions could be effective. Behavioural interventions can only succeed where people’s Capabilities, Opportunities, and Motivations to perform target behaviours are supported. Our retrospective data analyses examine the relationships between people’s Capabilities, Opportunities, Motivations, and Behaviours, i.e., adherence to lockdown guidelines. Our cross-sectional analyses include 17,962 unique participants in Great Britain who completed a survey over the initial 30 days of the first lockdown (April 2020). We examine trends in responses to each scale and then the relationships between the scales using Granger’s causality test with tests for stationarity and cointegration. A mixture of increasing and decreasing trends was identified for Capabilities and Opportunities. Decreasing trends were identified for Motivation and Behaviour. Granger’s causality tests found that Capability forecasts Opportunity and Behaviour and that Motivation forecasts Opportunity. The discussion reiterates that to realise and maintain Behaviour changes, policies surrounding people’s Capabilities, Opportunities, and Motivations must continue to support target behaviours.
format Article
id doaj-art-d3e3ff7c3e6d418bab47c07251121b22
institution OA Journals
issn 2076-328X
language English
publishDate 2024-09-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series Behavioral Sciences
spelling doaj-art-d3e3ff7c3e6d418bab47c07251121b222025-08-20T01:56:10ZengMDPI AGBehavioral Sciences2076-328X2024-09-0114985210.3390/bs14090852Considering the Role of Behavioural Fatigue in the COVID-19 Lockdown Debates in Great Britain: A Retrospective Analysis of a National Survey Assessing the Relationships between Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, and BehaviourSaval Khanal0Kelly Ann Schmidtke1Kaloyan Haralampiev2Ivo Vlaev3Health Economics Consulting, University of East Anglia, East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UKLiberal Arts, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy, St. Louis, MO 63110, USADepartment of Sociology, Faculty of Philosophy, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, 1504 Sofia, BulgariaWarwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UKDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, the term “behavioural fatigue” became the centre of policy debates in Great Britain. These debates involved deciding when to go into lockdown and whether behavioural interventions could be effective. Behavioural interventions can only succeed where people’s Capabilities, Opportunities, and Motivations to perform target behaviours are supported. Our retrospective data analyses examine the relationships between people’s Capabilities, Opportunities, Motivations, and Behaviours, i.e., adherence to lockdown guidelines. Our cross-sectional analyses include 17,962 unique participants in Great Britain who completed a survey over the initial 30 days of the first lockdown (April 2020). We examine trends in responses to each scale and then the relationships between the scales using Granger’s causality test with tests for stationarity and cointegration. A mixture of increasing and decreasing trends was identified for Capabilities and Opportunities. Decreasing trends were identified for Motivation and Behaviour. Granger’s causality tests found that Capability forecasts Opportunity and Behaviour and that Motivation forecasts Opportunity. The discussion reiterates that to realise and maintain Behaviour changes, policies surrounding people’s Capabilities, Opportunities, and Motivations must continue to support target behaviours.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/14/9/852behaviourCOVID-19nudge systems thinkingretrospectiveUnited Kingdom
spellingShingle Saval Khanal
Kelly Ann Schmidtke
Kaloyan Haralampiev
Ivo Vlaev
Considering the Role of Behavioural Fatigue in the COVID-19 Lockdown Debates in Great Britain: A Retrospective Analysis of a National Survey Assessing the Relationships between Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, and Behaviour
Behavioral Sciences
behaviour
COVID-19
nudge systems thinking
retrospective
United Kingdom
title Considering the Role of Behavioural Fatigue in the COVID-19 Lockdown Debates in Great Britain: A Retrospective Analysis of a National Survey Assessing the Relationships between Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, and Behaviour
title_full Considering the Role of Behavioural Fatigue in the COVID-19 Lockdown Debates in Great Britain: A Retrospective Analysis of a National Survey Assessing the Relationships between Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, and Behaviour
title_fullStr Considering the Role of Behavioural Fatigue in the COVID-19 Lockdown Debates in Great Britain: A Retrospective Analysis of a National Survey Assessing the Relationships between Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, and Behaviour
title_full_unstemmed Considering the Role of Behavioural Fatigue in the COVID-19 Lockdown Debates in Great Britain: A Retrospective Analysis of a National Survey Assessing the Relationships between Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, and Behaviour
title_short Considering the Role of Behavioural Fatigue in the COVID-19 Lockdown Debates in Great Britain: A Retrospective Analysis of a National Survey Assessing the Relationships between Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, and Behaviour
title_sort considering the role of behavioural fatigue in the covid 19 lockdown debates in great britain a retrospective analysis of a national survey assessing the relationships between capability opportunity motivation and behaviour
topic behaviour
COVID-19
nudge systems thinking
retrospective
United Kingdom
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/14/9/852
work_keys_str_mv AT savalkhanal consideringtheroleofbehaviouralfatigueinthecovid19lockdowndebatesingreatbritainaretrospectiveanalysisofanationalsurveyassessingtherelationshipsbetweencapabilityopportunitymotivationandbehaviour
AT kellyannschmidtke consideringtheroleofbehaviouralfatigueinthecovid19lockdowndebatesingreatbritainaretrospectiveanalysisofanationalsurveyassessingtherelationshipsbetweencapabilityopportunitymotivationandbehaviour
AT kaloyanharalampiev consideringtheroleofbehaviouralfatigueinthecovid19lockdowndebatesingreatbritainaretrospectiveanalysisofanationalsurveyassessingtherelationshipsbetweencapabilityopportunitymotivationandbehaviour
AT ivovlaev consideringtheroleofbehaviouralfatigueinthecovid19lockdowndebatesingreatbritainaretrospectiveanalysisofanationalsurveyassessingtherelationshipsbetweencapabilityopportunitymotivationandbehaviour