Love Thy Neighbor? Perceived Community Abidance and Private Compliance to COVID-19 Norms in India

TL;DR

This study investigates how perceived community compliance influences individual COVID-19 preventive behaviors in India, highlighting the importance of community perceptions and interventions for sustained public health compliance.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence that perceived community compliance predicts individual behavior and explores the impact of lockdowns and community sensitization on compliance levels.

Findings

Positive correlation between perceived community and individual compliance

Lockdowns reduce individual compliance but community perception mitigates this effect

Community sensitization is especially effective for vulnerable populations

Abstract

Compliance with measures like social distancing, hand-washing and wearing masks have emerged as the dominant strategy to combat health risk from the COVID-19 pandemic. These behaviors are often argued to be pro-social, where one must incur private cost to benefit or protect others. Using self-reported data across India (n=934) through online survey, we assess if changes in perceived community compliance can predict changes in individual compliance behavior, controlling for the potential confounders. We observe statistically significant and positive relationship between the two, even after accounting for omitted variable bias, plausibly allowing us to view the results from a plausible causal lens. Further, we find subsequent lockdowns such as the ones imposed in India, have a detrimental effect on individual compliance though the gains from higher perceived community compliance seems to offset this loss. We also find that sensitization through community can be particularly effective for people with pre-existing co-morbidities. Our findings underscore the need for multi-level behavioral interventions involving local actors and community institutions to sustain private compliance during the pandemic.