{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,11,5]],"date-time":"2026-11-05T19:43:20Z","timestamp":1793907800786,"version":"4.8.0"},"reference-count":50,"publisher":"PeerJ","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,19]],"date-time":"2026-02-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1771459200000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100016190","name":"Trond Mohn Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["TMS2020TMT08"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["TMS2020TMT08"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100016190","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"abstract":"<jats:p>The way people perceive health risks is often assumed to influence how they adopt precautionary measures. However, people\u2019s assessment of a given phenomenon\u2019s risk may vary over time, and the relationship between perceived risk and compliance with protective measures may be dynamic and bi-directional. We measured the perceived risk of COVID-19 and compliance with infection control measures for a large representative sample at four time-points during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Norway. We employed a cross-lagged panel analysis to investigate both the cross-sectional and the temporal association between perceived risk and compliance. We found cross-sectional associations between perceived risk and compliance at one of the time points. There were no temporal associations between risk at one time-point and compliance at the subsequent time-point. Neither was compliance associated with risk at the subsequent time-point. The results suggest that the relationship between perceived risk and compliance with COVID-19 infection control measures is negligible and stable over time. A multiverse analysis showed that the absence of a relationship between perceived risk and compliance was robust to different operationalizations of perceived risk. This highlights the need for a nuanced understanding of how risk perceptions impact behavior during a pandemic.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.7717\/peerj.20554","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,19]],"date-time":"2026-02-19T08:00:21Z","timestamp":1771488021000},"page":"e20554","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Relationship between perceived risk and compliance with infection control measures during the first year of a pandemic"],"prefix":"10.7717","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Sebastian B.","family":"Bj\u00f8rkheim","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department for Psychosocial Science, Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sigurd W.","family":"Hystad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department for Psychosocial Science, Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bj\u00f8rn","family":"S\u00e6trevik","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department for Psychosocial Science, Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"4443","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"10.7717\/peerj.20554\/ref-1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"11","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-69746-3_2","article-title":"From intentions to actions: a theory of planned behavior","volume-title":"Action control: from cognition to behavior","author":"Ajzen","year":"1985"},{"issue":"2","key":"10.7717\/peerj.20554\/ref-2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"179","DOI":"10.1016\/0749-5978(91)90020-T","article-title":"The theory of planned behavior","volume":"50","author":"Ajzen","year":"1991","journal-title":"Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes"},{"issue":"5","key":"10.7717\/peerj.20554\/ref-3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"645","DOI":"10.1007\/s11031-014-9411-8","article-title":"When does self-reported prosocial motivation predict helping? 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