Unravelling habituation for COVID-19-related information: A panel data study in Japan

This study examines people’s habituation to COVID-19-related information over almost three years. Using publicly available data from 47 Japanese prefectures, we analyse how human mobility responded to COVID-19-related information, such as the number of COVID-19-infected cases and the declaration of a state of emergency (DSE), using an interactive effects model, which is a type of panel data regression. The results show that Japanese citizens were generally fearful and cautious in the first wave of an unknown infection; however, they gradually became habituated to similar infection information during subsequent waves. Nevertheless, the level of habituation decreased in response to different types of infections, such as new variants. By contrast, regarding the DSE, it is more plausible to consider that human mobility responds to varying requests rather than habituate them. We also find spatial spillovers of infection information on human mobility using a spatial weight matrix included in the regression model. The implementation of flexible human mobility control policies by closely monitoring human mobility can prevent excessive or insufficient mobility control requests. Such a flexible policy can efficiently suppress infection spread and prevent economic activity reduction more than necessary. These implications are useful for evidence-based policymaking during future pandemics.