Failure of individuals to voluntarily observe regulations and recommendations around mitigating COVID-19 (e.g. social distancing; frequent handwashing) is often cited as a reason why some countries struggled to curtail the spread of the virus. Understanding the factors that are associated with people's willingness to comply with COVID-19 regulations and recommendations is an important step in helping policy makers and health officials reduce the impact of this (and future) pandemics. In the current study we examined this question in one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic: Spain. A large, representative survey (N = 2100) revealed that several factors were positively associated with willingness to comply to COVID-19 regulations and recommendations. In decreasing order of predictive value, these were: (i) perceptions of whether friends and family were complying (i.e. norms), (ii) trust in science as a basis for lawmaking, (iii) perceived effectiveness of regulations and (iv) perception of risk of infection. These results point to the importance of influencing social norms as the primary way to improve adherence to the health regulations of COVID-19; more important than intrapsychic considerations such as efficacy and risk.
Keywords: COVID-19; health behaviour; norms; risk perceptions; trust in science.
Responding effectively to a pandemic such as COVID-19 requires citizens to voluntarily comply with certain recommendations and regulations; for example, social distancing and frequent handwashing. The current study examined a large, representative sample of over 2000 residents of Spain to find out what factors are associated with compliance (or non-compliance) with COVID-19 regulations and recommendations. The factor most closely associated with compliance was perceptions of whether friends and family were complying (i.e. the ‘social norm’). The second most important factor was trust in science as a basis for lawmaking. Two psychological factors that are normally considered important in driving health behaviours—perceived effectiveness of regulations and perception of risk of infection—had a much weaker relationship with compliance behaviours. The data suggest that social norms are a more important driver of compliance behaviour than individualistic, cost-benefit analyses such as whether the recommended strategies are perceived to be effective in reducing virus spread, and whether people feel they are personally at risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2. In sum, the results point to the importance of influencing social norms as a key way to improve adherence to health regulations associated with COVID-19.
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