In a randomized control trial exercise (for which Banerjee is widely acclaimed), the Nobel laureate directly addressed users via a text message with a 2.5-minute embedded video link, in which he encouraged them to report symptoms to local public health workers<\/a>, and emphasised the importance of maintaining social distancing and hygiene measures. <\/p>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe results have been very encouraging. Since the messages went out, twice as many people have been reporting symptoms to community health workers. Travel beyond one\u2019s village has fallen by 20%, and hand-washing after returning home has increased by 7%. Mask-wearing \u2014 which Banerjee did not mention in his message \u2014 has increased by 2%. Even people who did not receive the SMS benefited, as people who got it passed it on.
The findings mention that Indians, from end-March, had been told about social distancing and hygiene protocols through TV, radio, public signage, local government addresses, and via short jingles while making phone calls. Apart from these \u201cofficial\u201d sources, there\u2019s also conversations, phone-calls, WhatsApp messages, Facebook and Twitter.
In a survey in Bengal before the randomized trial, people reported that on an average, they heard about the importance of social distancing 20.2 times; washing hands 16.9 times; and wearing masks 17.2 times in the two previous days. Yet, that hadn\u2019t translated into much behavioural change. Despite a nationwide lockdown in India during the experiment, on average, 37% respondents in the sample group left their village at least once every two days. The survey respondents reported that typically, villagers washed their hands after returning home only 68% of the time. \u201cThis suggests that the Indian government\u2019s public health messaging was either ignored, forgotten, misunderstood, or insufficiently disseminated within the community,\u201d the report, a copy of which is with TOI, says. \u201cOverall, the results show that even against a background of a high level of messaging, an additional message by a respected public figure can still have large direct and indirect effects\u201d.
Celebrity messaging, in fact, had led to encouraging results in Indonesia on vaccination awareness.
Banerjee was assisted by Abhjit Chowdhury of the Liver Foundation, West Bengal, both of whom are on the Global Advisory Board for Covid Response Policy in Bengal. Banerjee\u2019s and Duflo\u2019s MIT colleague Benjamin A Olken, Harvard University researchers Marcella Alsan, Emily Breza, Arun G Chandrasekhar from Stanford University and Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham from Yale School of Management were also part of the study.
\u201cAt the planning stage, we argued about fixing a \u2018face\u2019 to voice the message,\u201d said Chowdhury, who\u2019s credited as a co-author of the study. \u201cWe concluded that it would be useful if the person is someone held in high esteem, not usually visible or reachable on media forums, simple in expression, a natural advisor with a spontaneous call rather than a designed one. We decided Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee would be the right choice.\u201d <\/div>\n