Modern problems require modern solutions. A literature review of the possible role of personalized and persuasive technology in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Due to COVID-19, governments have issued strict rules to mandate social distancing and virus-avoiding behavior in order to slow the spread of the virus. However, many factors influence people to either follow these rules or to disregard them. In this paper, we will investigate the theoretical background of the persuasive effect of a personalized simulated environment to visualize the spread of COVID-19. We propose an experiment where participants first answer questions about their virus-avoiding behavior, and their answers become the settings of the behavior of a simulated environment where agents can catch COVID-19. After one week, we ask about their virus-avoiding behavior again to see if it has changed. We conclude that the literary background suggests that personalization and persuasive technology could have a beneficial effect on virus-avoiding behavior.