1. Determinants of voluntary compliance: COVID-19 mitigation.
- Author
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Li, Meng-Hao, Haynes, Kingsley, Kulkarni, Rajendra, and Siddique, Abu Bakkar
- Subjects
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HEALTH policy , *MEDICAL masks , *COVID-19 , *MOTIVATION (Psychology) , *MEDICAL protocols , *HUMAN services programs , *SOCIAL isolation , *INFECTIOUS disease transmission , *PHYSICAL mobility , *SOCIAL distancing , *STAY-at-home orders , *SOCIAL skills , *DISEASE risk factors - Abstract
During the pre-vaccine period, the success of containing the spread of COVID-19 depends upon how communities respond to non-pharmaceutical mitigation policies such as social distancing, wearing of masks, retail and dining constraints, crowd limitation, and shelter-in-place orders. Of these policies, shelter-in-place and social distancing are of central importance. By using county-level mobility data as a measure of a community's voluntary compliance with social distancing policies, this study found that counties who received strong state social distancing policy directives and who had a high pro-social character showed lower mobility on retail and recreation mobility and grocery and pharmacy mobility (better social distancing) after states reopened from shelter-in-place orders. Counties that experienced a longer duration of shelter-in-place orders showed higher mobility (less social distancing), implying that the duration of the shelter-in-place order deteriorated social distancing response after reopening. This may be because reopening sent a "safe" signal to these counties or resulted in a response to the pent-up demand inducing higher mobility. The results indicate that implementing shelter-in-place and social distancing policies to slow down the transmission of COVID-19 were not necessarily effective in motivating a county to reduce mobility voluntarily. A county's pro-social character and the duration of shelter-in-place order should be considered when designing COVID-19 mitigation policies. • This study explores factors affecting voluntary compliance behavior after lockdowns. • A community's pro-social intention needs to be separated from community capital. • A longer duration of lockdowns leads to people not adhering to social distancing. • Pro-social intention increases voluntary compliance behavior after lockdowns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
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