DataSheet1_Who Complies and Who Defies? Personality and Public Health Compliance.docx

During the first wave of the pandemic, governments introduced public health measures in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus enough to “flatten the curve”. These measures required behavioral changes among ordinary individuals for the collective good of many. We explore how personality might explain who complies with social distancing measures and who defies these directives. We also examine whether providing people with information about the expected second wave of the pandemic changes their intention to comply in the future. To do so, we draw upon a unique dataset with more than 1,700 respondents. We find honest rule-followers and careful and deliberate planners exhibit greater compliance whereas those who are entitled, callous, and antagonistic are less likely to engage in social distancing. Our experimental results show that even small differences in messaging can alter the effect of personality on compliance. For those who are more fearful and anxious, being confronted with more information about the severity of the second-wave resulted in higher levels of anticipated social distancing compliance. At the same time, we find that the same messages can have the unintended consequence of reducing social compliance among people higher in Machiavellianism.

在新冠疫情全球大流行第一波暴发阶段，各国政府推出各类公共卫生防控举措，旨在延缓病毒传播速度，以达成‘拉平疫情曲线’的目标。此类举措要求普通民众调整自身行为，以维护多数人的集体公共利益。本研究探讨人格特质如何解释个体遵守社交距离（social distancing）措施，或是公然违抗此类指令的行为倾向，同时考察向民众传递关于疫情第二波暴发的预期相关信息，是否会改变其未来的合规意愿。为开展上述研究，我们使用了一份包含1700余名受访者的独有数据集。研究发现，恪守规则的诚实个体与审慎周密的规划者更易遵守社交距离措施；而恃权骄纵、冷漠无情且充满敌意的个体，则更难践行此类要求。本研究的实验结果表明，即便是信息传递上的细微差异，也会改变人格特质对合规行为的影响效果。对于恐惧与焦虑程度更高的人群，接触更多关于第二波疫情严峻性的信息后，其预期的社交距离合规意愿会显著提升。与此同时，我们发现此类信息也可能产生意想不到的负面影响：会降低高马基雅维利主义（Machiavellianism）人群的社交合规意愿。