Willingness to Comply With Biosecurity in Livestock Facilities: Evidence From Experimental Simulations
Disease in U.S. animal livestock industries annually costs over a billion dollars. Adoption and compliance with biosecurity practices is necessary to successfully reduce the risk of disease introduction or spread. Yet, a variety of human behaviors, such as the urge to minimize time costs, may induce...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2019-06-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Veterinary Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fvets.2019.00156/full |
| _version_ | 1811232680945123328 |
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| author | Scott C. Merrill Susan Moegenburg Christopher J. Koliba Asim Zia Luke Trinity Eric Clark Gabriela Bucini Serge Wiltshire Timothy Sellnow Deanna Sellnow Julia M. Smith |
| author_facet | Scott C. Merrill Susan Moegenburg Christopher J. Koliba Asim Zia Luke Trinity Eric Clark Gabriela Bucini Serge Wiltshire Timothy Sellnow Deanna Sellnow Julia M. Smith |
| author_sort | Scott C. Merrill |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Disease in U.S. animal livestock industries annually costs over a billion dollars. Adoption and compliance with biosecurity practices is necessary to successfully reduce the risk of disease introduction or spread. Yet, a variety of human behaviors, such as the urge to minimize time costs, may induce non-compliance with biosecurity practices. Utilizing a “serious gaming” approach, we examine how information about infection risk impacts compliance with biosecurity practices. We sought to understand how simulated environments affected compliance behavior with treatments that varied using three factors: (1) the risk of acquiring an infection, (2) the delivery method of the infection risk message (numerical, linguistic and graphical), and (3) the certainty of the infection risk information. Here we show that compliance is influenced by message delivery methodology, with numeric, linguistic, and graphical messages showing increasing efficacy, respectively. Moreover, increased situational uncertainty and increased risk were correlated with increases in compliance behavior. These results provide insight toward developing messages that are more effective and provide tools that will allow managers of livestock facilities and policy makers to nudge behavior toward more disease resilient systems via greater compliance with biosecurity practices. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T11:07:04Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-adbebb2fd47745ecb5f5930aa4d0e6c6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2297-1769 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T11:07:04Z |
| publishDate | 2019-06-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Veterinary Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-adbebb2fd47745ecb5f5930aa4d0e6c62022-12-22T03:35:44ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Veterinary Science2297-17692019-06-01610.3389/fvets.2019.00156446548Willingness to Comply With Biosecurity in Livestock Facilities: Evidence From Experimental SimulationsScott C. Merrill0Susan Moegenburg1Christopher J. Koliba2Asim Zia3Luke Trinity4Eric Clark5Gabriela Bucini6Serge Wiltshire7Timothy Sellnow8Deanna Sellnow9Julia M. Smith10Department of Plant and Soil Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, United StatesDepartment of Plant and Soil Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, United StatesDepartment of Community Development and Applied Economics, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, United StatesDepartment of Community Development and Applied Economics, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, United StatesDepartment of Mathematics & Statistics, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, United StatesThe Vermont Complex Systems Center, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, United StatesDepartment of Plant and Soil Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, United StatesDepartment of Food Systems, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, United StatesNicholson School of Communication and Media, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, United StatesNicholson School of Communication and Media, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, United StatesDepartment of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, United StatesDisease in U.S. animal livestock industries annually costs over a billion dollars. Adoption and compliance with biosecurity practices is necessary to successfully reduce the risk of disease introduction or spread. Yet, a variety of human behaviors, such as the urge to minimize time costs, may induce non-compliance with biosecurity practices. Utilizing a “serious gaming” approach, we examine how information about infection risk impacts compliance with biosecurity practices. We sought to understand how simulated environments affected compliance behavior with treatments that varied using three factors: (1) the risk of acquiring an infection, (2) the delivery method of the infection risk message (numerical, linguistic and graphical), and (3) the certainty of the infection risk information. Here we show that compliance is influenced by message delivery methodology, with numeric, linguistic, and graphical messages showing increasing efficacy, respectively. Moreover, increased situational uncertainty and increased risk were correlated with increases in compliance behavior. These results provide insight toward developing messages that are more effective and provide tools that will allow managers of livestock facilities and policy makers to nudge behavior toward more disease resilient systems via greater compliance with biosecurity practices.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fvets.2019.00156/fullbiosecuritycomplianceriskuncertaintygraphical messagelinguistic phrase |
| spellingShingle | Scott C. Merrill Susan Moegenburg Christopher J. Koliba Asim Zia Luke Trinity Eric Clark Gabriela Bucini Serge Wiltshire Timothy Sellnow Deanna Sellnow Julia M. Smith Willingness to Comply With Biosecurity in Livestock Facilities: Evidence From Experimental Simulations Frontiers in Veterinary Science biosecurity compliance risk uncertainty graphical message linguistic phrase |
| title | Willingness to Comply With Biosecurity in Livestock Facilities: Evidence From Experimental Simulations |
| title_full | Willingness to Comply With Biosecurity in Livestock Facilities: Evidence From Experimental Simulations |
| title_fullStr | Willingness to Comply With Biosecurity in Livestock Facilities: Evidence From Experimental Simulations |
| title_full_unstemmed | Willingness to Comply With Biosecurity in Livestock Facilities: Evidence From Experimental Simulations |
| title_short | Willingness to Comply With Biosecurity in Livestock Facilities: Evidence From Experimental Simulations |
| title_sort | willingness to comply with biosecurity in livestock facilities evidence from experimental simulations |
| topic | biosecurity compliance risk uncertainty graphical message linguistic phrase |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fvets.2019.00156/full |
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