How evolutionary behavioural sciences can help us understand behaviour in a pandemic - Archive ouverte HAL Access content directly
Journal Articles Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health Year : 2020

How evolutionary behavioural sciences can help us understand behaviour in a pandemic

Megan Arnot
  • Function : Author
Eva Brandl
  • Function : Author
Olk Campbell
  • Function : Author
Yuan Chen
  • Function : Author
Juan Du
  • Function : Author
  • PersonId : 1288336
Mark Dyble
  • Function : Author
Emily Emmott
  • Function : Author
Erhao Ge
  • Function : Author
Luke Kretschmer
  • Function : Author
Ruth Mace
  • Function : Author
Sarah Nila
  • Function : Author
Sarah Peacey
  • Function : Author
Gul Deniz Salali
  • Function : Author
Hanzhi Zhang
  • Function : Author

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought science into the public eye and to the attention of governments more than ever before. Much of this attention is on work in epidemiology, virology, and public health, with most behavioural advice in public health focussing squarely on ‘proximate’ determinants of behaviour. While epidemiological models are powerful tools to predict the spread of disease when human behaviour is stable, most do not incorporate behavioural change. The evolutionary basis of our preferences and the cultural evolutionary dynamics of our beliefs drive behavioural change, so understanding these evolutionary processes can help inform individual and government decisionmaking in the face of a pandemic.

Dates and versions

hal-03081477 , version 1 (18-12-2020)

Licence

Attribution

Identifiers

Cite

Megan Arnot, Eva Brandl, Olk Campbell, Yuan Chen, Juan Du, et al.. How evolutionary behavioural sciences can help us understand behaviour in a pandemic. Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, 2020, eoaa038, pp.264-268. ⟨10.1093/emph/eoaa038⟩. ⟨hal-03081477⟩
47 View
0 Download

Altmetric

Share

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More