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Human behavior in ecological systems: Understanding how network connectivity can affect human decisions in implementing biosecurity in pork farms
Beckage, Maegan
Beckage, Maegan
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Abstract
African Swine Fever (ASF) is a highly contagious and fatal disease that impacts pigs and wild boars, spreading from one pig to another through infected bodily fluids (Medicine, FDA, 2024). ASF has epidemic qualities as shown with its history in various countries in the European Union and Asia. Disease spread in U.S agricultural networks can have serious economic consequences, thus it is important to accurately model potential infection spread and implement prevention methods accordingly (Clark, et al., 2019). Biosecurity is important to reduce the risk of epidemics of diseases such as ASF and keep these agricultural systems running and efficient. However, it is up to each individual farmer to implement biosecurity, making it important to study the motivations and factors that may influence human decision making in these systems. In this study, we focus on the factors that may influence farmers to implement biosecurity in pork farms. By building a video game that simulates a map of pork farms in America, where the user will be in control of one farm, we seek to find the existence of a relationship between the connectivity of a farm network (network connectivity) and biosecurity implementation. We hypothesize that the more highly connected the network, the more biosecurity the user will purchase. The user’s goal in the game is to protect their farm health status by minimizing infections, while maximizing their profit. Amazon Mechanical Turk members were hired to play the game. Data was collected from the alpha and beta versions of the game over the span of August-November 2024. It was found that network connectivity has a weak relationship with biosecurity purchases, as shown through a Wilcoxon statistical test with a p-value of 0.023, which could be because other factors, such as government policy, are more prioritized in decision making. Future versions of the game should be created to further clarify the role of network connectivity in the game and isolate it from other variables, as well as to add more incentive to encourage users to take a more active role in biosecurity purchasing in the game.
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Date
2024-01-01