**H1c.** *The overuse of DCTAs positively affects the inconvenience to daily life during the COVID-19 pandemic*.

The NAM proposes that consequence awareness has a significantly positive effect on the ascription of responsibility and that the two activate personal norms together [39]. Such a relationship has been prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic. A study suggests that, in people's willingness to be vaccinated, the awareness of consequences creates the ascription of responsibility, while the latter activates personal norms for vaccination [41]. Similarly, a study suggests that people's awareness of the possible consequences allows them to actively take precautions while traveling in recognition of their potential responsibility in preventing COVID-19 [47]. One study analyzed people's behavior during the waste sorting of masks during the COVID-19 pandemic and verified the roles of the awareness of consequences and ascription of responsibility in the activation of personal norms [48]. First, due to the overuse of DCTAs, people will feel that their travels are constantly being monitored and will have a strong awareness of the consequences. Second, the overuse of DCTAs allows for more precise accountability, while a sense of responsibility is attributed when people understand that they will be held accountable for the consequences they cause. Third, people's concerns about the consequences and the ascription of responsibility together contribute to the creation of personal norms, which make people believe that cooperating with COVID-19 prevention is a moral imperative and pro-social behavior. Finally, due to the large-scale and continuous use of DCTAs, the mechanism of influence between awareness of the consequences, ascription of responsibility, and personal norms will persist and may facilitate people's continuous intention to cooperate with the government in preventing COVID-19. Therefore, the following hypotheses are proposed:

**H2a.** *The awareness of consequences that is caused by the overuse of DCTAs positively influences the ascription of responsibility*.

**H2b.** *The awareness of consequences that is caused by the overuse of DCTAs positively influences the activation of personal norms*.

**H2c.** *The ascription of responsibility that is caused by the overuse of DCTAs positively influences the activation of personal norms*.

**H2d.** *Personal norms have a positive impact on people's intention to consistently cooperate with the government to prevent COVID-19*.

The prospect theory proposes that individuals' preferences and behavior under risk and uncertainty tend to follow an evaluation of their potential gains and losses and that people may be willing to take risks in exchange for benefits in the face of large, perceived benefits [49]. One study confirmed that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the perceived health and privacy risks jointly influenced the perceived benefits, while people would be willing to forego some life conveniences in exchange for health benefits [26,50]. Living with an inconvenience can have a negative impact on people's behavioral intentions [51]. The overuse of DCTAs has caused many inconveniences in people's lives, such as privacy issues and incorrect diagnoses [8]. However, such inconveniences can only weaken people's willingness to continue to cooperate in the prevention of the disease and cannot be a direct deterrent. First, in an environment of government-led mass compulsory use, it is clear that people are more willing to endure the inconvenience of living with COVID-19 than to bear the consequences and responsibility of not cooperating in the prevention of COVID-19, although they are dissatisfied. Second, people use the new COVID-19 prevention technology because of their personal and community interests [4]. When people consider that the consequences of the spread of the epidemic may harm their personal or collective interests, they develop a sense of responsibility attribution, which makes them feel morally obliged to cooperate in the prevention of the epidemic, even if they are slightly dissatisfied. Overall, in the context of government-led mass-mandated use, the inconvenience of living with DCTAs is unlikely to directly affect people's sense of responsibility, sense of consequence, and personal norms, but it can create negative emotions that may weaken the strength of the causality of the responsibility, sense of consequence, and personal norms variables, ultimately affecting people's awareness of COVID-19 prevention. Therefore, the following hypotheses are proposed:

**H3a.** *The inconvenience to life that is caused by the overuse of DCTAs weakens the contribution of consequence awareness to the ascription of responsibility*.

**H3b.** *The inconvenience to life that is caused by the overuse of DCTAs weakens the role of consequence awareness in promoting personal norms*.

**H3c.** *The inconvenience to life that is caused by the overuse of DCTAs weakens the ascription of responsibility in promoting personal norms*.
