Background: To control the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential to trace and contain infection chains; for this reason, policymakers have endorsed the usage of contact tracing apps. To date, over 50 countries have released such apps officially or semiofficially, but those that rely on citizens’ voluntary uptake suffer from low adoption rates, reducing their effectiveness. Early studies suggest that the low uptake is driven by citizens’ concerns about security and privacy, as well as low perceptions of infection risk and benefits from the usage. However, these do not explore important generational differences in uptake decision or the association between individuals’ prosociality and uptake. Objective: The objective of our study was to examine the role of individuals’ prosociality and other factors discussed in the literature, such as perceived risk and trust in government, in encouraging the usage of contact tracing apps in Japan. We paid particular attention to generational differences. Methods: A web-based survey was conducted in Japan 6 months after the release of a government-sponsored contact tracing app. Participants were recruited from individuals aged between 20 and 69 years. Exploratory factor analyses were conducted to measure prosociality, risk perception, and trust in government. Logistic regression was used to examine the association between these factors and uptake. Results: There was a total of 7084 respondents, and observations from 5402 respondents were used for analysis, of which 791 respondents (14.6%) had ever used the app. Two factors of prosociality were retained: agreeableness and attachment to the community. Full-sample analysis demonstrated app uptake was determined by agreeableness, attachment to the community, concern about health risks, concern about social risks, and trust in the national government; however, important differences existed. The uptake decision of respondents aged between 20 and 39 years was attributed to their attachment to the community (odds ratio [OR] 1.28, 95% CI 1.11-1.48). Agreeable personality (OR 1.18, 95% CI 1.02-1.35), concern about social risk (OR 1.17, 95% CI 1.02-1.35), and trust in national government (OR 1.16, 95% CI 1.05-1.28) were key determinants for those aged between 40 and 59 years. For those aged over 60 years, concerns about health risks determined the uptake decision (OR 1.49, 95% CI 1.24-1.80). Conclusions: Policymakers should implement different interventions for each generation to increase the adoption rate of contact tracing apps. It may be effective to inform older adults about the health benefits of the apps. For middle-age adults, it is important to mitigate concerns about security and privacy issues, and for younger generations, it is necessary to boost their attachment to their community by utilizing social media and other web-based network tools.

An essential responsibility of a government is to reduce disaster mortality of citizens by encouraging prompt evacuation. Previous studies document that social capital plays a multifaceted role in facilitating or aggravating evacuation decisions; however, rigorous empirical evidence from developing countries is scarce. Using unique survey data collected from cyclone-affected households in Bangladesh, we examine the association between social capital and the decision to evacuate. We find that those with higher bonding social capital are more likely to evacuate, and the effect is even larger among religious minorities. By conducting a sensitivity test, we confirm that it is implausible to explain these results by unobserved socio-economic status or cyclone damage. We also disentangle five potential mechanisms for the positive effect and demonstrate that it is mainly driven by a reduction in the perceived risk of theft during evacuation. This suggests that bonding social capital compensates for the lack of a well-functioning law enforcement system, contributing to our understanding of the interactive roles of communities and institutions during natural disaster.