India has had half of its 26 lakh total cases in July alone, making it clear that economic motives could not be sacrificed at the altar of epidemiological ones; these must be balanced to ensure a safe passage for the country. This often includes tradeoffs that are neither economically ‘rational’ nor epidemiologically ‘safe’. Insights from individual behavior can explain some of the cognitive challenges that policymakers face today.
Behavioural sciences study the effect of cognitive biases on individual behavior and decision-making. For example, individuals may choose to not wash their hands for a multitude of reasons from ‘present bias’ to ‘attenuation bias’. Behavioural economics expands on this, applying these biases to individuals operating in an economy; the price one is willing to pay to wash hands (time less than 20 seconds) is much lower than the accepted price (20 seconds), even though economics would argue that full availability of information about hand-washing is enough to lead to ‘rational behaviour’.