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. 2022 Oct:310:115308.
doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115308. Epub 2022 Aug 25.

Determinants of voluntary compliance: COVID-19 mitigation

Meng-Hao Li  1 , Kingsley Haynes  2 , Rajendra Kulkarni  1 , Abu Bakkar Siddique  1
Affiliations

Determinants of voluntary compliance: COVID-19 mitigation

Meng-Hao Li et al. Soc Sci Med. 2022 Oct.

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.

Keywords: COVID-19; Mitigation; Pro-social characteristics; Shelter-in-Place; Social distancing.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest None.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
3 Weeks Average of Retail & Recreation Mobility after State Reopening.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
3 Weeks Average of Grocery & Pharmacy Mobility after State Reopening.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Number of Social Distancing Policies by State.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Pro-social Character Index by County.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Periods of the Shelter-in-Place Order by State.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Percentage of Nonprofit Organization by County.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Interaction effect between social distancing policies and pro-social character index on retail and recreation mobility.
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
Interaction effect between social distancing policies and pro-social character index on grocery and pharmacy mobility.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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