Optimism Bias during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Empirical Evidence from Romania and Italy

Given the importance of perceived susceptibility to a disease in adopting preventive behaviours, and the negative impact of optimism bias on prevention, this paper aimed to explore to what extent optimism bias is present in the specific context of the Covid-19 pandemic, in two countries with different profiles in terms of the spread of the disease: Italy and Romania. After identifying optimism bias in both countries, we tested whether it depends on respondents’ characteristics like gender, age, education, health status and whether or not they have the opportunity to work from home. We surveyed 1126 Romanians and 742 Italians, and found that optimism bias depends on self-reported health status, and that optimism bias increases with age. Inconclusive evidences were found regarding gender and education level, as well as regarding the option to work from home