Explaining Compliance with Social Distancing During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Roles of Cultural Orientations, Trust and Self-Conscious Emotions in the US, Italy, and South Korea
The coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented health crisis. Many governments around the world have responded by implementing lockdown measures of different degrees of intensity. To be effective, such measures must rely on citizens’ compliance. In the present study, we drew on samples from the US (N = 597), Italy (N = 606) and South Korea (N = 693) and examined predictors of compliance with social distancing, and intentions to disclose the disease to authorities and acquaintances/friends. Data were collected between April 6th and 8th. We investigated the role of cultural orientations of horizontal and vertical individualism and collectivism, trust in the government’s action, and self-conscious emotions of shame and guilt related to the disease. Across all countries, vertical collectivism predicted stronger shame whereas horizontal collectivism predicted stronger trust in the government’s action. Only in the US, vertical collectivism was associated with stronger trust. Subsequently, shame predicted lower compliance and intentions to disclose the disease, whereas guilt was associated with stronger intentions to disclose the disease to the authorities, and trust was associated with stronger compliance and intentions to disclose the disease to the authorities. Unlike Italy and South Korea, the association between trust on compliance was not statistically significant in the US, Implications of the findings, and directions for future research are discussed.