Our review of recent studies finds a small-but-consistent gap in men & women's beliefs about their health risks related to the present pandemic; these risk beliefs are crucial determinants of whether individuals take protective measures

Gender differences in perceived risk of COVID-19. Andrew Lewis, Raymond Duch. Social Science Quarterly, October 29 2021. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.13079

Abstract

Objective: We examine gender-based differences in perceived risks related to COVID-19.

Methods: We analyze published findings from COVID-related research on beliefs and attitudes about the health risks posed by the pandemic. We also design and administer a pair of online survey experiments (n = 502) to test if and how responsive men's attitudes are to information about male-specific risks.

Results: Across 16 studies, men consistently express lower perceived risk of contracting COVID-19 and less concern about the potential health consequences if they were to catch it. Our experimental results are mixed: Results for one information treatment indicate that men report greater relative risk of adverse outcomes. Men in one of the risk information treatments express less concern for their health if they were to contract the disease. Risk perceptions are positively correlated with self-reported propensity toward protective behaviors.

Conclusion: Our review of recent studies finds a small-but-consistent gap in men and women's beliefs about their health risks related to the present pandemic. These risk beliefs are crucial determinants of whether individuals take protective measures. Our experimental results suggest that informing men of male-specific risks associated with COVID-19 can reduce their risk perceptions 

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

A central concern of public health officials world-wide has been to communicate to the general public the risks associated with the COVID-19 virus. It is widely accepted, and our evidence confirms, that risk beliefs are correlated with behavior.

In order to effectively convince the general public about the risks associated with the COVID-19, public health authorities require a sound understanding of current beliefs about the virus and of the effective communication strategies they should adopt. This research note provides two important insights in this regard. First, we address the notion that there is a gender gap in COVID-19 risk perceptions. We conduct an extensive meta-analysis of recent research on COVID—19 risk perceptions. This analysis indicates that men generally have lower estimates, than women, of their COVID-related risks; and men tend to be more tolerant than women of those risks.

We conjecture that some of this gender gap difference can be narrowed by exposing men to information regarding the health dangers of COVID-19. The survey experiment is designed to test this proposition. A second contribution implements survey experiments designed to identify the effect of information treatments on men's beliefs about the risks of the COVID-19 virus. First, presentation matters; we observer stronger treatment effects for Experiment 2 that presents the risk information in a graphic format. In fact, none of the treatment effects are significant in Experiment 1 when we have subjects read a short discussion of the risks of COVID-19. Second, how messages are framed and communicated matters—in fact, information frames can have perverse outcomes. Our Experiment 2 treatment simply highlights men's increased risks of adverse outcomes from COVID-19—but the framing has the perverse effect of reducing self-reported concern about the disease.

There is no evidence in our two experiments to suggest that providing information about the risks associated with the COVID-19 will cause men to increase their risk assessments associated with the disease—in fact they might have the opposite effect. This highlights the importance of carefully crafting information campaigns designed to change risk perceptions. Future work could focus, for example, on framing this risk information in ways that are amenable to “identity-protective cognition,” such that men are less likely to view the treatment as a threat to their own self-perception. As Kahan (2007) writes, “it is not enough that the information be true; it must be framed in a manner that bears an acceptable social meaning.”