*2.7. Risk-Averse Behavior*

Risk-averse behavior is an individual's tendency to avoid uncertain or risky situations. To illustrate, a risk-averse individual is reluctant to indulge in events with uncertain or risky outcomes. Thus, such individuals are more inclined towards prevention adoption during a pandemic. It has been shoen that some infections stay dormant in human beings without infecting them. However, some infectious diseases not only infect the human being in which they were living but also infect other human beings who come into contact with the carrier. In order to test the persons' ability to evade the risk of the disease spreading, a pandemic spreading model was proposed by [69]. The findings showed that the cause of the expansion of disease was transforming dormant human beings into explosives. Also, selfprevention helped minimize the expansion of infectious diseases [69]. Further, Berry and Finnoff [70] investigated how individuals might react against the increasing pandemic by proposing two investment policies. Those policies included the adaptation policy (in which individuals can invest in domestic capital) and prevention policy (in which individuals can invest in foreign capital). In this way, the expansion of pandemics could be controlled. In the same vein, Lee and You [71] investigated and found a significant impact of health factors on the avoidance of healthcare use in South Korea. Hashiguchi et al. [72] analyzed the association among health risk, productivity, and work motivation among the construction workforce in Japan. The health risk was significantly associated with productivity and work motivation. Cordellieri et al. [73] studied the influence of psychological factors on COVID-19 containment and observed its negative impact. Moreover, there were three identified reasons that risk-averse behavior was considered as a distinct aim of health policy. First, public health security was a priority. Second, it was essential for societal planning. Finally, it was a suitable response towards decision-making, especially when available pieces of information were limited [74]. In light of these works, the following hypothesis is formulated:

**Hypothesis 7.** *Risk-averse behavior is likely to have a positive association with a willingness to adopt pandemic prevention.*

#### *2.8. Perceived Risk*

Perceived risk demonstrates an individual's subjective assessment of his/her risk of indulging in an adverse situation. In real life, perceived (subjective) risk plays a more substantial role than the actual (objective) risk in shaping the behavior of individuals [75].

Thus, the better the risk is perceived by an individual more likely he/she is to adopt pandemic prevention. It is the subjective opinion regarding the nature and magnitude of a risk encountered by the people. It is generally used for natural disasters and environmental or safety risks. Concerning this factor, Ho et al. [76] conducted a study in Taiwan in 2004 to discover the impact of perceived risk on the kind of tragedy like a flood or land sliding and characteristics of individuals (victims). The main results depicted that perceived risk has a significant influence on the type of disasters and characteristics of victims. A project named Highland Malaria Project was developed in Kenya and Uganda for early detection, control, and malaria prevention between 2001 to 2006. The main reason for this was to mitigate the risk of its expansion by detecting and curing it at an early stage [77]. From a different perspective of perceived risk, Valeeva et al. [78] studied the factors influencing the farmer's risk management strategies named biosecurity and animal health programs as well as their perception in terms of the management of disease and animal health risks by taking data from 164 participants and using a structural equation modeling approach. The results indicated that biosecurity measures are more efficient as compared to animal health programs.

Moreover, Kiviniemi et al. [79] researched the influence of the education gap in the perceived risk of HIV by taking data from 1993 to 2000 in the U.S. The findings exposed that people with a low level of education are unaware of disease and health risk compared to people with a high level of education. Hence, the perceived risk is high for highly educated people as compared to less educated people. Similarly, Raude et al. [80] unveiled the perceptions relevant to risk and behaviors in the malarial pandemic outbreak results taking the data of 434 French Guiana residents. The results showed that the perceived risk of infection considerably reduces over time. After that, Rodriguez-Besteiro et al. [81] examined and revealed a significant influence of perceived pandemic risk on nutrition, psychology, and habits of Spanish individuals. Sica et al. [82] evaluated the influence of perceived COVID-19 s danger and anxiety on pandemic protection, and revealed its positive impact for 742 community members in the Italian context. In their research, Ding et al. [83] examined the COVID-risk perception in China and discovered that college students in Hubei province had a high level of risk perception. Finally, Li et al. [84] examined the impact of perceived risk on social support and the possibility of contracting COVID-19 by conducting an online questionnaire from 1970 Taiwan's residents. It was found that perceived risk mediated the impact of social support on the possibility to contract the COVID-19 disease. These studies lead to the formulation of the following hypothesis:

**Hypothesis 8.** *Pandemic knowledge is likely to have a positive association with willingness to adopt pandemic prevention.*
