How vicarious experiences influence non-compliance with COVID-19 prevention regulations

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, most countries have adopted strict regulation strategies such as travel restrictions, gathering restrictions, and daily health reporting. With the normalization of the pandemic, people have shown resistance to these highly intensive regulations. Yet few studies have explored the mechanisms of behavioral change from compliance to non-compliance from the perspective of vicarious experiences. Based on the social cognitive theory, we constructed a model linking vicarious experiences, risk perception, and non-compliance behavior to reveal the mechanism of why individuals do not comply with pandemic prevention rules and regulations. A sample of 1080 Chinese participants was obtained from a time lagged design. The results indicated that vicarious experiences could influence non-compliance with prevention rules and regulations via perceived probability and perceived consequence of being caught. In addition, public trust in the government could negatively moderate the direct effect of the intention of violating prevention rules and regulations on non-compliance. This direct effect is stronger for citizens with low levels of public trust in the government than for those with high levels. Our findings advance the understanding of the mechanisms behind the way vicarious experiences affect citizens’ non-compliance behavior with COVID-19 prevention rules and regulations.