Why are people - particularly young people - not obeying isolation orders? Dr Celia Lie examines the behaviours behind compliance to Covid guidelines.
We have woken up today with New Zealand in varying states of lockdown (Level 3 for Auckland, and Level 2 for the rest of New Zealand) due to the emergence of some community cases of Covid-19.
A large part of the dialogue I’m coming across on social media is about “why?”. Not “why” are we in lockdown again, but “why” are people, particularly young people (teenagers and young adults), not obeying isolation orders (such as going to work at KFC when being asked to isolate, or going the gym after getting a Covid test).
Some of the commentary I’ve read seems to lie in the “don’t blame the young people… blame the people who are sending messages that young people aren’t affected by Covid and they should just get on with their lives” camp. And while this may certainly be true, it’s really only part of the bigger picture.
In psychology, we try to answer the question of “why do people behave the way they do?” and we do so by using a wide range of theories and perspectives. In thinking about this from a psychological approach, there are a number of areas that come to mind that may add to the dialogue in helping to explain the behaviours of young people and their compliance to Covid guidelines:
Brain development – our brains are complex
We have different parts of our brains specialised in different types of function (called “localisation of function”), and these parts of the brain develop at different rates. In fact, the last part of the brain to fully develop is called the pre-frontal cortex (PFC), and is located at the very front of our brains. The PFC is a very important part of our brain – it is responsible for things such as goal-setting, planning, risk-taking, and decision-making. Researchers have found that this part of the brain isn’t fully developed until roughly our mid-20s. Now this doesn’t mean that young people are incapable of making rational decisions, it just means they are not fully equipped for complex decision-making the way that adults are. Simply put, we need to provide better support to young people to help guide them to make good decisions.
Conformity
"If so-and-so jumped off a cliff, would you?” I’m sure you’ve heard your parents say that (in fact, I’ve probably said it to my kids numerous times as well!) But we know from social psychology research that if enough people do something, then chances are that conformity is going to happen and people are more likely to go along with the crowd. Why do people conform? A lot of the time, it’s because they want to fit in and be liked. If you are with a group of friends and no one scans in using the Covid tracer app, chances are that you won’t either. The good news is that is only takes a few people to do the right thing to encourage others to do so too (a “tipping point”).
Consequences matter
The consequences of what we do help shape our future behaviours. You tell a good joke, everyone laughs, so you are more likely to tell the same joke again in the future (i.e., your behaviour is being reinforced). You touch an electric fence, you get shocked, so you are less likely to touch electric fences again in the future (i.e., your behaviour is being punished). Consequences (such as reinforcement and punishment) are more effective the larger they are, the more immediate they are, and the more likely they are to occur.
On the flipside, consequences that are small, far away in time, and unlikely to happen are less likely to influence our behaviours. What happens if we don’t “sign in and stop the virus?”. What happens if we don’t stay in isolation when we’re supposed to? The negative consequences of these behaviours (e.g., catching or spreading Covid) seem to be unlikely to happen. What we can try to do is encourage the right behaviours by providing incentives for those who do so (such as businesses who provide discounts for those who sign in, or app makers incorporating some kind of point rewards system for sign-ins), and making it more obvious what the consequences are if we do not (such as going back into lockdown).
Personality and individual differences. Humans are unique in so many different ways, and personality is just one we can use to measure individual differences in people. The Big 5 personality test, for example, measures how people differ in traits such as extraversion, conscientiousness, openness, neuroticism, and agreeableness. This time last year, my colleagues and I conducted a study (paper in preparation) looking at personality types and New Zealanders’ attitudes and behaviours in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic. Some of our key findings were that people who rated higher in conscientiousness showed more concern about Covid-19, and thus were more likely to engage in appropriate behaviours (such as washing hands and self-isolation). We also found that people who scored higher in agreeableness were more likely to have compliant attitudes, and those who scored higher in neuroticism had higher levels of stress. These findings suggest that personality may be an interesting way to explore why people behave the way they do.
To summarise, it’s really not just as simple as saying “blame the conspiracy theorists” or to point the blame at “young people” who aren’t doing what they are supposed to do. There are so many factors at play (this article is really only the tip of the iceberg). Psychology can not only help to contribute to understanding people’s behaviours, but it can also hopefully point to some useful directions of how we can change people’s behaviours as well.
Dr Celia Lie's research interests are in the general area of behaviour analysis, with a focus on the effects of positive and negative consequences on human choice and detection behaviour. She is currently the Secretary/Website Administrator for the New Zealand Association for Behaviour Analysis.
