Martina Barjaková

Martina Barjaková
Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca | UNIMIB · Department of Psychology

Master of Science
PhD candidate at Department of Psychology, University of Milan-Bicocca

About

27
Publications
6,476
Reads
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479
Citations
Introduction
Behavioural economist passionate about applied behavioural research for policy. Mostly interested in applying behavioural science in domains of health and environment. Currently working on a PhD project focused on judgements and communication of synergistic health risks.
Additional affiliations
September 2018 - August 2021
Economic and Social Research Institute
Position
  • Research Assistant
December 2017 - April 2018
European Commission
Position
  • Trainee
February 2017 - June 2017
Bocconi University
Position
  • Intern
Education
September 2015 - March 2018
Bocconi University
Field of study
  • Economic and Social Sciences

Publications

Publications (27)
Chapter
Full-text available
While Chap. 1 introduces the concept of loneliness as a negative feeling associated with perceived deficiencies in the quantity and quality of social relationships, this chapter focuses on how this concept is operationalised and measured in surveys. We start by discussing the literature on the measurement of loneliness, which often relies on the us...
Chapter
Full-text available
This chapter analyses the prevalence of loneliness in the European Union along several dimensions, exploring vulnerabilities within specific demographic groups and mitigating or triggering factors such as meaningful social connections and life events. The first part of the chapter investigates which demographic and socio-economic groups are more vu...
Article
Full-text available
Humankind's main defence against the virus that cuases COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2), besides vaccine development, was co-ordinated behaviour change. In many countries, co-ordination was assisted by tracking surveys designed to measure self-reported behaviour and attitudes. This paper describes an alternative, complementary approach, which was undertaken i...
Article
Full-text available
Rationale: Increasingly, loneliness is being recognised as a serious problem with detrimental effects on health, as well as on social cohesion and community trust. To effectively tackle this complex issue, a clear understanding of the phenomenon and its main drivers is needed. Over years of scientific research on loneliness, many potential risk fa...
Article
Full-text available
Contact-tracing mobile phone apps can play a role in controlling the spread of COVID-19, but their success hinges on widespread public acceptance, uptake and use, which are difficult for public administrators to foresee. We report on a rapid behavioral pre-test of COVID Tracker, Ireland’s contact-tracing app, prior to its launch. A large sample of...
Article
Full-text available
In crisis situations like the Covid-19 pandemic, human behaviour plays a vital role. Understanding how people behave, why, and what might change their behaviour is thus crucial for governments and public health authorities. Such understanding can be enhanced through the use of behavioural science. This paper reviews some examples of the actual use...
Article
Full-text available
Objective Vaccination campaigns against COVID-19 will only be successful if enough people want to take the vaccine. We tested a government communications intervention to encourage uptake. Design A pre-registered randomised controlled trial. Methods A large, nationally representative sample were randomly assigned to see one of eight posters. The po...
Article
Full-text available
People have limited capacity to process and integrate multiple sources of information, so how do they integrate multiple contextual risk factors for Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infection? In June 2020, we elicited risk perceptions from a nationally representative sample of the public (N = 800) using three psychologically-distinct tasks. Response...
Preprint
Full-text available
Rapid Antigen Detection Tests for SARS-CoV-2 (hereafter RADT) are potentially a valuable tool in our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but their usefulness depends on the perceptions, decisions and behaviours of those taking RADT. Successful implementation of RADT programmes requires people to take RADT and, importantly, to do so in line with publ...
Preprint
Full-text available
With the ongoing rollout of smart meters in Ireland, time-of-use (ToU) tariffs are currently being introduced as a new way to pay for electricity. Such tariffs can bring important benefits to both consumers and society, in terms of reduced electricity bills and CO2 emissions, respectively. At the same time, some consumers may find it more difficult...
Article
Full-text available
Concerns about loneliness and social isolation are growing more than ever. With the COVID-19 pandemic entering its second year, there are fears that the toll on loneliness could have consequences long after the virus recedes. This study offers a comparative overview of the incidence and determinants of loneliness and social isolation in Europe in t...
Preprint
Full-text available
How do people perceive and integrate multiple contextual risk factors for COVID-19 infection? We elicited risk perceptions from a nationally representative sample of the public (N = 800) using three psychologically-distinct tasks. Responses were compared to a sample of medical experts who completed the same tasks. The public underestimated the risk...
Preprint
Full-text available
Contact-tracing mobile phone apps have the potential to play a role in controlling the spread of COVID-19, but their success hinges on widespread uptake by the public. We report a study that behaviourally pre-tested COVID Tracker, Ireland's contact-tracing app, prior to its launch with a large sample of smartphone users. The study was funded by the...
Preprint
Full-text available
Contact-tracing mobile phone apps have the potential to play a role in controlling the spread of COVID-19, but their success hinges on widespread uptake by the public. We report a study that behaviourally pre-tested COVID Tracker, Ireland's contact-tracing app, prior to its launch with a large sample of smartphone users. The study was funded by the...
Article
Full-text available
Objective Self-isolation is a vital element of efforts to contain COVID-19. We set out to test whether decision aids can support self-isolation. Design We conducted a pre-registered online experiment with a nationally representative sample (n = 500). Three stages tested: (i) whether decision trees help people to decide whether they need to self-is...
Article
Full-text available
Objective: Accurate measurement of compliance with COVID-19 guidance is important for public health policy and communications. Responses to surveys, however, are susceptible to psychological biases, including framing effects and social desirability. Our aim was to measure the effects of these biases on estimates of compliance with public health gui...
Article
Full-text available
Rationale Maintaining social distance during the COVID-19 pandemic can save lives. We therefore set out to test communication strategies to promote social distancing. Objective We aimed to test two novel public health messages against a control message. The first was designed to exploit the “identifiable victim” effect by highlighting the risk of...
Article
Full-text available
Main findings - A nationally representative sample of 1,000 people overwhelmingly agree that the Test-and-Trace system is extremely important for controlling the spread of COVID-19. - Almost 90 per cent of people are aware they can arrange a test for COVID-19 by calling their own GP, but only 30 per cent know they can do so by calling any GP or an...
Preprint
Full-text available
Self-isolation is a vital element of efforts to contain COVID-19. We report an online experiment with a nationally representative sample (N=500) that tested behaviourally informed decision aids to support self-isolation. The experiment had three stages that tested interventions designed to help individuals to: (i) decide whether they need to self-i...
Preprint
Full-text available
Social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic will save lives. We tested communication strategies to promote social distancing via an online experiment (N = 500) commissioned by Ireland’s Department of Health. A control group saw a current informational poster. Two treatment groups saw similar posters with messages that highlighted: (i) the risk o...
Article
Full-text available
Encouraging consumers to switch to lower-rate mortgages is important both for the individual consumer’s finances and for functioning competitive markets, but switching rates are low. Given the complexity of mortgages, one potential regulatory intervention that may increase switching rates is to provide independent advice on how to select good mortg...
Technical Report
Full-text available
More than 75 million European adults meet with family or friends at most once a month and around 30 million European adults frequently feel lonely. Loneliness is more prevalent in Eastern and Southern Europe than in Western and Northern Europe. Poor health, unfavourable economic circumstances and living alone are all associated with higher rates of...

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