Examining the cultural dimension of contact-tracing app adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-country study in Singapore and Switzerland

Abstract

Contact-tracing applications (CTAs) have been introduced as part of the COVID-19 containment strategy worldwide. In most countries, however, their uptake has been too low to realize their full potential. This study contributes to the understanding of CTA adoption by investigating the influence of public perceptions on adoption and the role of media in forming these perceptions in Singapore and Switzerland. In a comparative approach, online surveys in both countries (Singapore: N = 998; Switzerland: N = 1,022) and multigroup structural equation modeling reveal national differences. First, attention to media was associated more strongly with app-related perceptions in Singapore than in Switzerland, with news media attention correlating positively with favorable perceptions in both countries (i.e., perceived usefulness of the CTA, perceived social norms of adoption) and social media attention correlating negatively with these perceptions in Singapore. Second, regarding the influence of these perceptions on CTA adoption, perceived usefulness was associated with CTA adoption in Switzerland but not in Singapore; conversely, perceived social norms were more important in Singapore than in Switzerland. These results suggest that the communicative formation of public perceptions and their behavioral relevance are contingent on media systems (authoritarian vs. democratic media system) and cultural values (collectivism vs. individualism), highlighting the theoretical value of a country-comparative approach and the practical need for a culturally sensitive implementation of health technologies.