In science we (should) trust: Expectations and compliance across nine countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT: The magnitude and nature of the COVID-19 pandemic prevents public health policies from relying on coercive enforcement. Practicing social distancing, wearing masks and staying at home becomes voluntary and conditional on the behavior of others. We present the results of a large-scale survey experiment in nine countries with representative samples of the population. We find that both empirical expectations (what others do) and normative expectations (what others approve of) play a significant role in compliance, beyond the effect of any other individual or group characteristic. In our vignette experiment, respondents evaluate the likelihood of compliance with social distancing and staying at home of someone similar to them in a hypothetical scenario. When empirical and normative expectation

SUBMITTER: Bicchieri C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8177647 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature