Behavioral Implementation and Compliance of Anti-Epidemic Policy in the COVID-19 Crisis

Abstract

Different countries have introduced different urgent policies to control the spread of the novel coronavirus. The compliance behavior of these anti-epidemic policies has always been an important concern to governments, and its effects need to be tested. In recent years, many scholars have paid attention to the mechanism and intervention of policy compliance behavior, which helps to explain the mechanism of anti-epidemic compliance behavior, and to improve the effectiveness of anti-epidemic policy. Therefore, considering the characters of youth groups in the context of the novel coronavirus, this study takes campus anti-epidemic compliance behavior as the research topic, based on 680 effective samples of college students in China, in order to examine the effectiveness of these policies using an investigation experiment. This study revealed that the ‘Nudge’ policy instrument was the most effective way to guide individuals’ behavior during the coronavirus outbreak, the ‘Sermon’ instrument was the least recognized, and the ‘Whip’ instrument (a traditional and classical policy instrument) had its normal effect on individuals’ behavior. Additionally, it found that high accessibility in policy implementation results in more significant policy behavior. By taking the effects of different policy behaviors into consideration, governments may produce better and more effective policy implementation and compliance during the anti-epidemic period.