Knowledge acquisition and precautionary behaviors for individual resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic: A study of rural Latin America

The concept of resilience gains prominence as human society faces more frequent and impactful shocks and disturbances. This study seeks to investigate how rural populations build resilience amid the COVID-19 pandemic. A simple theoretical model is presented to illustrate the determinants of knowledge acquisition and precautionary behaviors among rural residents. Based on a High Frequency Phone Survey of 10,583 Latin American adults, this study found that rural residents were less capable of using informal channels (e.g., the internet) to collect COVID-19 information. Younger generations were generally less likely to adopt precautionary behaviors than the elderly. The age disparity, however, was relatively minor for rural populations. Costly preventive measures such as staying at home are less affordable for rural residents. Meanwhile, confidence in government ensures better compliance to ensure public health guidelines. We argue that internet skills, prosociality, and political confidence are necessary to build rural residents' resilience during the pandemic.