Influence of Personality and Trust in Government on Young Adult's Compliance to COVID-19 Restrictions
Mask Off: Influence of Personality and Trust in Government on Young Adults’ Adherence to COVID-19 Restrictions Nell Royal Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences (BMS), University of Twente Dr. Margôt Kuttschreuter Dr. Peter de Vries July 9, 2021 1 Abstract For citizens’ safety, governments all over the world enacted regulations to restrict the spread of COVID-19 in 2020. Especially in the Netherlands, these regulations encountered disapproval, protests, and riots, causing many young males getting arrested. As the measures are part of a collective effort, it is necessary to investigate, why some people adhere to the restrictions, and others disregard them. Recent research dealt with that question and found trust being related to compliance with COVID-19 measures. The present study examined how trust in government and the personality traits conscientiousness and neuroticism influence the tendency to adhere to COVID-19 restrictions imposed by the Dutch government. To investigate how attitude, trust and intention interact, as well as the role of personality, an online questionnaire survey design was employed. Via social media, a convenience sample of young adults in the age of 18-29 was collected (N=85). Results showed trust in government to be a moderator of the relationship between attitude and behaviour intention: for low trusting individuals, attitude is a stronger predictor of behaviour intention than it is for highly trusting individuals. Further, there were no statistically significant relationships between attitude and neuroticism or conscientiousness. Based on the results, proposals for action were deduced suggesting trust as an important consideration to ensure adherence to protective measures.
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