Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of self-control, risk aversion, and fear of infection in shaping compliance with preventive measures

Abstract This paper refers to interview data collected in six municipalities in the Lecce province of southern Italy, across three waves: 2020, 2021, and 2022. The principal aim of the research was to determine whether compliance with four government-recommended non-pharmaceutical measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 — indoor and outdoor mask use, and indoor and outdoor physical distancing — differed over the years and, if so, whether these differences were influenced by personal characteristics. Specifically, we focused on the psychological features of self-control, risk aversion, and fear of contracting COVID-19 and their relationships with these four measures. The results suggest that virus mortality, the regulations in force, and experience of the pandemic affected compliance with certain preventive measures across all waves. With regard to psychological features, the three factors of interest were found to predict preferences for, and substitutions across, the measures, with effects that varied across the waves.