Lemonade Encourages Customers to Fuel ‘Social Good’ by Taking COVID-19 Research Surveys

May 4, 2020

Lemonade is encouraging its members to take online surveys – lots of them – in order to positively impact the COVID-19 crisis.

The InsurTech focused on digital homeowners and renters insurance used a recent blog posting to highlight 10 surveys from research and academic institutions around the world seeking a wide range of information about how people are faring during the pandemic. Areas addressed by the surveys include slowing the spread of COVID-19, loneliness and mental health issues, and helping organizations cope with new realities. Lemonade also posts links to each survey.

Yael Wissner-Levy, Lemonade’s vice president of communications, explained that the initiative dovetails with the New York-based company’s digital focus and business approach, where Lemonade gives any leftover claims money to policyholder causes they pick while signing up.

“Lemonade is an insurance company powered by AI and behavioral economics, and driven by social good,” Wissner-Levy said. “In these challenging times we’re motivated to both help scientists (including behavioral economists) widen their participant demographics for their research and enlist our community to help.”

Lemonade noted in its April 16 blog posting highlighting the surveys that they could help with self-care in a time of quarantines and confinement.

“We suggest taking one or two now, and bookmarking this page so you can do more whenever you need something mindless to do,” the posting says in its pitch.

Surveys run the gamut, from Bard College’s “How anxiety influences behavior” to the University of Texas at Austin’s look at the “Impact of COVID-19” on daily lives. The University of Oregon is looking at mental health and stress during the pandemic, and Princeton University wants to hear from participants about social distancing and well-being.

Montreal Behavior Medicine Center, New York University, the University of Haifa in Israel and Harvard University are among other institutions taking part.

Wissner-Levy said scientists have responded favorably to promotion of their surveys and the “thoughtful customers who took part.”

At some point, participating institutions will send results from their surveys to policymakers or publish their findings in academic journals.

Lemonade’s blog page offers a number of other pandemic-related advice postings, such as “How to Balance Parenting and Work Life During a Crisis,” and “5 Ways to Ensure the Perfect Zoom Call.”