Version 1
: Received: 27 December 2023 / Approved: 27 December 2023 / Online: 27 December 2023 (13:04:47 CET)
How to cite:
Rocha, P. The Correlation between Policy Stringency and Compliance with Restrictions to Reduce the Spread of COVID-19. Preprints2023, 2023122081. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202312.2081.v1
Rocha, P. The Correlation between Policy Stringency and Compliance with Restrictions to Reduce the Spread of COVID-19. Preprints 2023, 2023122081. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202312.2081.v1
Rocha, P. The Correlation between Policy Stringency and Compliance with Restrictions to Reduce the Spread of COVID-19. Preprints2023, 2023122081. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202312.2081.v1
APA Style
Rocha, P. (2023). The Correlation between Policy Stringency and Compliance with Restrictions to Reduce the Spread of COVID-19. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202312.2081.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Rocha, P. 2023 "The Correlation between Policy Stringency and Compliance with Restrictions to Reduce the Spread of COVID-19" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202312.2081.v1
Abstract
Upon the outbreak of the COVID-19, countries worldwide developed policies with the goal to introduce restrictive measures geared towards mitigating the spread of the virus. Although these health initiatives were put in place through top-down public directives, they relied heavily on the cooperation of citizens who had to be willing to carry them out. As a consequence, we could observe differences in compliance with governmental restrictions within and between countries. Increasing policy stringency was the method adopted overall to promote people’s compliance. This article used survey data from 10308 participants in Brazil to examine whether there was a positive correlation between policy stringency and compliance with restrictive measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The results revealed, however, that there was no direct influence of policy stringency on people’s health behaviors. Accordingly, I hypothesized that individual differences in personality traits were one of the drivers behind policy compliance, as they would support self-interests such as the duty to support authorities as well as the perceived health risks of certain behaviors and ultimately motivate compliance. The findings’ implications for both compliance research and for authorities wanting to nurture voluntary compliance with public health orders are discussed and suggestions are provided.
Keywords
Big Five; Compliance; COVID-19; Personality traits; Policy-making; Policy stringency
Subject
Public Health and Healthcare, Health Policy and Services
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
