Follow or not follow?: The relationship between psychological entitlement and compliance with preventive measures to the COVID-19

Some recent evidence has shown that individuals with a higher sense of psychological entitlement were more likely to ignore instructions than individuals with a lower sense of psychological entitlement. Building on these findings, the current research investigated the relationship between psychological entitlement and breaching coronavirus restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using self-reported adherence to various infection prevention measures, Study 1 revealed that psychological entitlement positively predicted a lower likelihood of complying with distancing instructions in Chinese university students. Study 2 fully replicated these findings in a new sample of Chinese working adults. Moving beyond self-assessment of public health-compliance behaviors, Study 3 further assessed the relationship behaviorally and recapitulated the reported effects. Consistently, Studies 1 through 3 provided supporting evidence that fairness perceptions mediate the negative link between psychological entitlement and observance of preventive measures. Overall, our findings suggest that individual differences in psychological entitlement are associated with people's virus-mitigating behaviors in the fight against COVID-19.