Previous studies have reported differences between men and women in the adoption of preventive behaviors against infectious diseases. This study aims to examine gender differences on a set of psychosocial factors shown to influence preventive behaviors against infectious diseases such as COVID-19. We conducted a web survey (N = 1.004) a few weeks after the end of the peak of the first wave of infections in Chile. The survey assessed participants’ perception of risk and worry about the COVID-19 pandemic, confidence in the government’s competence and integrity in dealing with the crisis, attribution of responsibility to various stakeholders, and adoption of preventive behaviors such as hygiene, distancing, and information-seeking. Our results confirm significant gender-based differences for both the psychosocial factors and the adoption of preventive behaviors. We conclude that women show a higher level of worry and fear of the pandemic and are keener to adopt preventive hygiene and social distancing behaviors. Similarly, participants report a low level of trust in government authorities, with women reporting the lowest trust level. The implications of these findings for the design of future risk communication strategies are discussed.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of government trust on young adults’ adoption of health behaviors to prevent infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.Method: We tested the hypothesis that government trust would directly and indirectly (through worry/fear and subjective norms) influence the adoption of health-protective behaviors. A sample of 1,136 university students completed a web survey after Chile’s first wave of infections.Results: The results indicate that low government trust only indirectly (through subjective norms) influenced health-protective behaviors. Conversely, worry/fear was the primary motivating factor for adopting health-protective behaviors in young adults, followed by subjective norms.Conclusion: In scenarios where people perceive low government trust, emotions and social norms are the motivational factors with the most significant predictive power on the adoption of health-protective behaviors.