Herd immunity and a vaccination game: An experimental study.
Would the affected communities voluntarily obtain herd immunity if a cure for COVID-19 was available? This paper experimentally investigates people's vaccination choices in the context of a nonlinear public good game. A "vaccination game" is defined in which costly commitments (vaccin...
Main Authors: | , |
---|---|
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2020-01-01
|
Series: | PLoS ONE |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0232652 |
id |
doaj-d67b7fe468cb48839c587137be788d50 |
---|---|
record_format |
Article |
spelling |
doaj-d67b7fe468cb48839c587137be788d502021-03-04T11:54:38ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032020-01-01155e023265210.1371/journal.pone.0232652Herd immunity and a vaccination game: An experimental study.Wooyoung LimPengfei ZhangWould the affected communities voluntarily obtain herd immunity if a cure for COVID-19 was available? This paper experimentally investigates people's vaccination choices in the context of a nonlinear public good game. A "vaccination game" is defined in which costly commitments (vaccination) are required of a fraction of the population to reach the critical level needed for herd immunity, without which defectors are punished by the natural contagion of epidemics. Our experimental implementation of a vaccination game in a controlled laboratory setting reveals that endogenous epidemic punishment is a credible threat, resulting in voluntary vaccination to obtain herd immunity, for which the orthodox principle of positive externalities fails to account. The concave nature of the infection probability plays a key role in facilitating the elimination of an epidemic.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0232652 |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Wooyoung Lim Pengfei Zhang |
spellingShingle |
Wooyoung Lim Pengfei Zhang Herd immunity and a vaccination game: An experimental study. PLoS ONE |
author_facet |
Wooyoung Lim Pengfei Zhang |
author_sort |
Wooyoung Lim |
title |
Herd immunity and a vaccination game: An experimental study. |
title_short |
Herd immunity and a vaccination game: An experimental study. |
title_full |
Herd immunity and a vaccination game: An experimental study. |
title_fullStr |
Herd immunity and a vaccination game: An experimental study. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Herd immunity and a vaccination game: An experimental study. |
title_sort |
herd immunity and a vaccination game: an experimental study. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
series |
PLoS ONE |
issn |
1932-6203 |
publishDate |
2020-01-01 |
description |
Would the affected communities voluntarily obtain herd immunity if a cure for COVID-19 was available? This paper experimentally investigates people's vaccination choices in the context of a nonlinear public good game. A "vaccination game" is defined in which costly commitments (vaccination) are required of a fraction of the population to reach the critical level needed for herd immunity, without which defectors are punished by the natural contagion of epidemics. Our experimental implementation of a vaccination game in a controlled laboratory setting reveals that endogenous epidemic punishment is a credible threat, resulting in voluntary vaccination to obtain herd immunity, for which the orthodox principle of positive externalities fails to account. The concave nature of the infection probability plays a key role in facilitating the elimination of an epidemic. |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0232652 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT wooyounglim herdimmunityandavaccinationgameanexperimentalstudy AT pengfeizhang herdimmunityandavaccinationgameanexperimentalstudy |
_version_ |
1714803264964263936 |