We Can Make People Follow Pandemic Restrictions Without Fear: Here's How

If people were to voluntarily follow rules and guidelines proposed by policy makers and experts, containing a pandemic like the Covid-19 would become much less of a hassle.

But when they don¡¯t change their behaviour or maintain it in the long run, governments may be tempted to use fear as means to motivate people into washing their hands, using face masks and keeping their distance from each other. That, however, also affects our mental health and is fertile ground for discrimination and prejudice.

AFP

New research shows a different path

A new research based on large surveys across eight Western democracies found that ¡®self-efficacy¡¯, or the confidence to fight against the virus was a key factor behind people complying with the authorities¡¯ guidelines when the Covid-19 pandemic swept across the world in the spring of 2020.

The more we personally felt informed and capable of acting clearly, greater was our response towards preventing infection during the pandemic, such as avoiding handshakes or covering our face with masks.

Reuters

¡°Our study shows that in the first stage of the pandemic, a sense of urgency emerged and made people put aside individual considerations and political differences. This sense caused people across the world to say: ¡®Tell us what to do, and we will do it,'¡± says Professor Michael Bang Petersen, one of three authors behind the study.

The paper also mentioned that people high in interpersonal trust were less likely to engage in protective behaviours compared to people low in interpersonal trust across all countries.

The future roadmap

The study, published in British Journal of Health Psychology, is based on representative surveys conducted across Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Sweden, the UK and the USA in which a total of 26,508 people participated from March to May 2020.

The findings suggest that a major focus during the Covid-19 and future pandemics should be on providing clear information about protective behaviour and formulating guidelines that facilitate a sense of self©\efficacy in the public.

BCCL

In fact, the study found that when people feel capable of handling the crisis, fear is no longer necessary for them to comply with authorities' guidelines, thereby providing a pathway to compliance without fear.

¡°These are important findings because they show a pathway to public compliance with pandemic health advice which is not driven by personal fear. Today, in the spring of 2021, many countries are hit by a third wave of infections and authorities may be tempted to induce fear to make people follow guidelines. Our findings provide policymakers with an alternative,¡± Prof Petersen concluded.