Open AccessAmbivalence and Self-Reported Adherence to Recommendations to Reduce the Spread of COVID-19
Author(s) -
Iris K. Schneider,
Angela Rachael Dorrough,
Celine Frank
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.185
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 2151-2590
pISSN - 1864-9335
DOI - 10.1027/1864-9335/a000465
Subject(s) - ambivalence , psychology , social psychology , german , pandemic , covid-19 , sample (material) , macro , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , medicine , chemistry , disease , archaeology , pathology , chromatography , computer science , infectious disease (medical specialty) , programming language , history
. Governments worldwide still, to some extent, rely on behavioral recommendations to reduce the spread of COVID-19. We examine the role of ambivalence toward both the specific recommendations (micro-ambivalence) and the pandemic as a whole (macro-ambivalence) about compliance. We predict that micro ambivalence relates negatively, whereas macro ambivalence relates positively to self-reported adherence to recommendations. We present two studies ( N = 691) supporting our hypotheses: the more ambivalent people are toward the behavioral recommendations (micro-level), the less they report following them. Conversely, the more ambivalent people are about the pandemic as a whole (macro-level), the more they report following recommendations. Our findings were replicated in a US sample and a representative German sample.