Predicting compliance with COVID-19 containing measures using context-specific and dispositional individual differences: The particular role of individual’s sense of responsibility for collective health
In this research, we examined whether context-specific individual differences would allow for a better prediction of pandemic-related attitudes and behavior than non-specific dispositional traits. In Study 1, we introduced a context-specific measure of individual differences in the sense of responsibility for collective health (SRCH) and compared its ability to predict the acceptance of pandemic-related restrictions, with that of pandemic-related worries considered as a context-specific but self-oriented tendency and with two dispositional traits, i.e., grandiose and vulnerable narcissism. Only SRCH and pandemic-related worries uniquely predicted the acceptance of restrictions. In Study 2, we examined whether SRCH predicted increased hygiene and social distancing during pandemic better than narcissistic traits and pandemic worries, as well as social responsibility personal values—an others-oriented disposition. The results showed that SRCH explained most of the unique variance in social distancing, whereas pandemic-related worries uniquely predicted most of the variance in hygiene practices. Of the dispositional traits, only social responsibility personal values predicted a unique portion of the variance in social distancing, whereas narcissistic traits added no incremental value in predicting any of the precautionary measures. The results of both studies indicate that context-specific individual differences are robust predictors of compliance with COVID-19 mitigating measures.