Scan the Code, Help the Whole: Reciprocity and Acceptance of Contact-tracing App during COVID-19 Pandemic (Preprint)

BACKGROUND The “Health Code”, a Chinese version of contact-tracing App, has played an important role for COVID-19 containment in China, effectiveness of which depends on public acceptance. In order to obtain the health that the App can ensure, people are supposed to share their personal data. A “benefit-risk” calculus that based on others’ participation then unfolds. OBJECTIVE The present study generates a reciprocal perspective with a combination of technology acceptance model (TAM) and social exchange theory to understand the psychological mechanism of public acceptance of contact-tracing Apps. METHODS A questionnaire survey was conducted on March 2021 in a sample of 3000 Chinese netizens (mean age 32.5 years; 51.0% male). A moderated mediation model was tested and verified by utilizing PROCESS macro, with covariates well controlled. RESULTS Reciprocity had an indirect effect on accepting attitude towards the “Health Code” mediated by perceived risk and perceived usefulness, while part of this effect was negatively moderated by risk perception towards COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS The acceptance of the “Health Code” was examined to be a reciprocal process with technological characteristics of data sharing as well as contextual characteristics of public health crisis. To promote public acceptance of contact-tracing Apps for COVID-19 containment, it is necessary to evoke reciprocity among the public both ideologically and physically, manage their “benefit-risk” calculus by presenting the Apps’ usefulness and guaranteeing data protection, and also take corresponding measures according to different crisis situation.