We can’t hang out anymore: an analysis of self-other asymmetries and anti-COVID vaccination confidence in Guatemala

Abstract

I conduct a survey indagating on risk perception and anti-COVID protection measures to 438 Guatemalan citizens of a high range of ages (from less than 18 to more than 60 years old) and middle to upper socio-economic level. I utilized the lottery framework developed by Holt and Laury to elicit behavior at the face of risk in two domains, financial and health. Both the survey and the risk assessments were subject to a self-other framing, in which respondents were asked to answer either on behalf of themselves or of another. Results show that Guatemalans are more risk-taking in the financial domain when deciding for themselves than for another, but both groups reported almost identical risk attitudes in the health domain. The results report a great dissociation between prosocial behavior to stop the COVID-19 spread, were people rank themselves better than others. Data also shows than being vaccinated does not increase economically active behavior, and this paper explains this in relation with the self-other dissociation found.