Follow or not? Descriptive norms and public health compliance: Mediating role of risk perception and moderating effect of behavioral visibility

Abstract

In a pandemic context, public health events are receiving unprecedented attention, and identifying ways to enhance individual public health compliance behaviors has become an urgent practical problem. Considering that individual decisions are susceptible to group members’ behaviors and that descriptive norms provide social information about the typical behaviors of others, we focused on the effects of the properties and reference groups of descriptive norms on public health compliance behaviors. We also investigated the mechanism with risk perception as a mediator and the applicable condition with behavioral visibility as a moderator. Through a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subject survey experiment with 529 subjects, we demonstrated that (1) compared with the negative norm, the positive norm was more effective in promoting public health compliance behaviors; (2) compared with the distal group norm, the proximal group norm more significantly promoted public health compliance behaviors; (3) the effect of the property of descriptive norms on public health compliance behaviors was weakened in the treatment of the proximal group norm; (4) risk perception partially mediated the association between the property of descriptive norms and public health compliance behaviors and fully mediated the effect of the interaction of the property and the reference group of descriptive norms on public health compliance behaviors; in the treatment of the negative-proximal group norm, individuals perceived more risk, thus effectively nudging their public health compliance behaviors; (5) compared with low-visibility behaviors, public health compliance behaviors were significantly stronger for high-visibility behaviors; (6) the property of descriptive norms had a weaker effect on public health compliance behaviors for low-visibility behaviors. In terms of theoretical significance, we refined the study of descriptive norms to promote the application of behavioral public policy. Moreover, the new model of public health compliance behaviors constructed in this study explains the mechanism and applicable conditions of public health compliance behaviors. In practical terms, this study has implications for designing intervention programs to nudge public health compliance behaviors.

Who follows through? Different factors predict initial commitment vs. Following through in a national survey of organ donor registration

“…Research has also demonstrated that increasing feelings of hopefulness can help overcome fear of death from organ donation, and promote willingness to register as a donor [ 32 ]. Interventions could target descriptive norms either by highlighting the prevalence of organ donor registration within reference groups [ 62 ] or increasing the visibility of organ donor registration behavior—when a behavior is easily observed, individuals are more likely to construe that behavior as normative [ 63 , 64 ]. Interventions to increase prototype similarity could invite participants to identify with organ donors.…”

Exploring the link between public health compliance and voting patterns in the 2020 U.S. presidential election

“…This encompasses a broad spectrum of practices and attitudes aligned with established public health guidelines and regulations. The primary objective of such compliance is to maintain and improve community health, as highlighted in the study by Zhang et al (2022). Compliance in public health extends beyond mere adherence to health recommendations; it includes understanding and supporting the underlying principles of public health policies.…”

Alienation from medical care policy, medical care avoidance, and the role of sex and risk perception

“…Medical care avoidance can result in delayed screening, missed opportunities for optimal recovery, increased risk of developing a serious disease, increased family care burden, increased medical care costs [ 1 – 4 ], and eventually, a decrease in the healthcare condition, quality of life, and life satisfaction of the population, particularly those with chronic diseases [ 3 , 4 ]. In 2021, 15.3% of Chinese chronic disease patients (including heart and chronic respiratory diseases, cancer, and diabetes), aged 30–70 years, suffered premature mortality due to medical care avoidance behavior (chronic diseases) [ 5 ].…”