Mapping the sociodemographic distribution and self-reported justifications for non-compliance with COVID-19 guidelines in the United Kingdom

• Published in: Frontiers in psychology Vol. 14; p. 1183789
• Main Authors: Bălăeț, Maria, Kurtin, Danielle L, Gruia, Dragos C, Lerede, Annalaura, Custovic, Darije, Trender, William, Jolly, Amy E, Hellyer, Peter J, Hampshire, Adam
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 19.07.2023
• Subjects: behaviour; compliance; COVID-19; natural language processing; Psychology; topic modelling; COVID-19; behaviour; natural language processing; compliance; topic modelling
• ISSN: 1664-1078; 1664-1078
• DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1183789

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.