Optimizing and Implementing Contact Tracing through Behavioral Economics

Contact tracing disrupts chains of communicable disease transmission by asking cases to identify contacts. The authors examine ways to enhance tracing’s effectiveness and people’s compliance with control measures such as isolation and quarantine. They call for a research and practice agenda around how best to do so within the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Contact tracing is a well-established approach to controlling communicable diseases, including tuberculosis, smallpox, and Ebola.^1–3 Contact tracing disrupts chains of transmission by asking individuals who have tested positive for the disease (cases) to identify people they may have exposed (contacts)...