Citizen Compliance with Pandemic Rules in China: Exploring the Effects of Emotional States, Peer Influence, and Policing

In December 2019, the SARS-CoV-2 virus was first detected in Wuhan, China. Soon after, China became the first country in the world to enforce strict restrictions in an effort to mitigate the spread of the disease. Relying on survey data from 600 Chinese citizens in urban China, this study assessed the extent of citizen compliance and factors related to public compliance to pandemic lockdown and mitigation rules during the initial peak of the pandemic in January, 2020. Using multivariate regressions, we explored the effects of three sets of factors on Chinese citizens’ compliance to pandemic mitigation rules: negative emotions during the pandemic, peer modeling of compliance, and the prevalence of formal social control in the forms of police presence and performance. Our regression analyses suggest that all three mechanisms influence Chinese citizens’ level of compliance with counter-pandemic rules. Nevertheless, the strengths of their effects varied, with peer influence showing the strongest effect on compliance, followed by police presence and fear of contracting COVID-19.