Mapping the sociodemographic distribution and self-reported justifications for non-compliance with COVID-19 guidelines in the UK
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Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Which population factors have predisposed people to disregard government safety
guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic and what justifications do they give
for this non-compliance? To address these questions, we analyse fixed-choice
and free-text responses to survey questions about compliance and government
handling of the pandemic, collected from tens of thousands of members of
the UK public at three 6-monthly timepoints. We report that sceptical opinions
about the government and mainstream-media narrative, especially as pertaining
to justification for guidelines, significantly predict non-compliance. However,
free text topic modelling shows that such opinions are diverse, spanning from
scepticism about government competence and self-interest to full-blown
conspiracy theories, and covary in prevalence with sociodemographic variables.
These results indicate that attempts to counter non-compliance through
argument should account for this diversity in peoples’ underlying opinions, and
inform conversations aimed at bridging the gap between the general public and
bodies of authority accordingly.
guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic and what justifications do they give
for this non-compliance? To address these questions, we analyse fixed-choice
and free-text responses to survey questions about compliance and government
handling of the pandemic, collected from tens of thousands of members of
the UK public at three 6-monthly timepoints. We report that sceptical opinions
about the government and mainstream-media narrative, especially as pertaining
to justification for guidelines, significantly predict non-compliance. However,
free text topic modelling shows that such opinions are diverse, spanning from
scepticism about government competence and self-interest to full-blown
conspiracy theories, and covary in prevalence with sociodemographic variables.
These results indicate that attempts to counter non-compliance through
argument should account for this diversity in peoples’ underlying opinions, and
inform conversations aimed at bridging the gap between the general public and
bodies of authority accordingly.
Date Issued
2023-07-19
Date Acceptance
2023-06-28
Citation
Frontiers in Psychology, 2023, 14, pp.1-18
ISSN
1664-1078
Publisher
Frontiers Media S.A.
Start Page
1
End Page
18
Journal / Book Title
Frontiers in Psychology
Volume
14
Copyright Statement
© 2023 Bălăeț, Kurtin, Gruia, Lerede, Custovic,
Trender, Jolly, Hellyer and Hampshire. This is an
open-access article distributed under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution License
(CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction
in other forums is permitted, provided the
original author(s) and the copyright owner(s)
are credited and that the original publication in
this journal is cited, in accordance with
accepted academic practice. No use,
distribution or reproduction is permitted which
does not comply with these terms.
Trender, Jolly, Hellyer and Hampshire. This is an
open-access article distributed under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution License
(CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction
in other forums is permitted, provided the
original author(s) and the copyright owner(s)
are credited and that the original publication in
this journal is cited, in accordance with
accepted academic practice. No use,
distribution or reproduction is permitted which
does not comply with these terms.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1183789/full
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
1183789
Date Publish Online
2023-07-19