ABSTRACT
Research showed that compliance with pandemic restrictions was strongly linked to personality and that some personality types were more likely to observe social distancing and other protective behaviours. This finding was replicated across a number of different countries and cultures. People that were higher in conscientiousness and also in neuroticism were more compliant. The latter tended to be more anxious individuals and the former liked to take control of situations and keep order. Having greater knowledge about COVID was also related to greater compliance to cope with the disease. Further research in the United Kingdom showed that many people were aware of their civic duties and expected others to be compliant. There was also public intolerance for rule-breaking. Further research showed that commitment to new behaviour rules could be revealed by asking respondents how much they thought others would comply. All these findings indicated that factors other than those focused upon by the other three models alone were needed to develop a more rounded and comprehensive framework of behaviour change analysis. The COM-B model emerged as a solution. Studies that used this model among different populations found that it could predict and explain useful degrees of variance in behaviour compliance with governments’ restrictions on everyday behaviours and requests to people to take personally protective steps against infection and to get vaccinated.
