Expectancy Value and Protection Motivation as Factors of Acceptance and Adoption of Covid-19 Safety Protocols

COVID-19 is notably the most pervasive pandemic in world history. In Nigeria, the extent of devastation can be measured in terms of health and other socio-economic indicators. The NCDC reveals that the country has recorded over 264, 014 cases with over 3,148 deaths so far. Until the recent experiment with vaccine, there was no cure for the disease. To stay safe, the WHO recommended the safety protocols. Although promoted through multimedia platforms, preliminary investigations reveal that the behavior change campaign may have recorded different degrees of success but may not have been influential in singularly altering lifestyles without the intervention of some psycho-social variables such as education, income, protection motivation, health belief and value attached to the campaign, the campaigner and the pandemic. In this study, the researcher isolated the variables and interrogated the influence of expectancy value and protection motivation on acceptance, or rejection of the COVID-19 safety protocols. Survey research method was adopted in order to quantitatively analyze responses of 480 respondents selected from a population of 3,649,000 Ibadan residents. The results show that majority of the respondents did not willingly adhere to the safety protocols; they were compelled by security operatives or fear of them. 36.5% did to a large extent and 31.9% to a moderate extent wear nose masks only in designated public places like banks, hospital and churches. Majority (34.8%) to a moderate extent, doubt the existence of Covid-19, because of government’s poor attitude towards the pandemic; 75.9% also reveal that government’ actions weaken resolve to observe the safety protocols. Since the dissonance in applying the safety protocols was prompted by lack of trust on government actions or government’s inability to gain the trust of the citizens, the study recommends that public health campaigns should be promoted by credible sources, that is, those that seem to practice what the advocate.