What Went Wrong? Predictors of Contact Tracing Adoption in Italy during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Together with vaccines, contact tracing systems (CTS) have proved to be one of the best strategies to deal with the current COVID-19 pandemic. However, the adoption of such systems has been quite limited in EU countries, and Italy was no exception. The present research aimed to investigate the factors drawn from the most relevant psychological models in the literature, most associated with the adoption of CTS. The data analysis of the 501 surveyed answers (329 from CTS adopters) showed that knowing important others who have downloaded the CTS, CTS attitudes, CTS perceived efficacy, COVID-19 risk perception, and trust in the government and its actions influenced the adoption of the Italian CTS (52% of explained variance). These factors defined a new specific model that can be used to more effectively promote CTS adoption and thus increase the protective potential of these technologies, whose effectiveness is inevitably linked to adoption.