key: cord-0976216-w9nsyucc authors: Bellato, Alessio title: Psychological factors underlying adherence to COVID-19 regulations: a commentary on how to promote compliance through mass media and limit the risk of a second wave date: 2020-09-06 journal: Social sciences & humanities open DOI: 10.1016/j.ssaho.2020.100062 sha: 9c3bbbb2f7ac2a18ba6b7717b36e1ca9d22b2bd9 doc_id: 976216 cord_uid: w9nsyucc Considering the real possibility of a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, this brief commentary is intended to share some suggestions on how to phrase public health advice about maintaining social distancing, using face masks in public spaces and adhering to personal hygiene measures. We specifically focus on discussing three factors: empathy, positive mood and social influence. The commentary concludes with a series of brief suggestions aimed at policy makers and stakeholders involved in promoting adherence to regulations to avoid a second wave of the pandemic through mass media communications. They have also been asked to avoid travelling outside a specific geographical zone, the borders of which Although the effectiveness of public health mass media campaigns is mixed [3] , it has been suggested 14 that public health messages should be designed by considering who the messages are directed to, should 15 highlight the potential threats to health and the actions to be performed to reduce such threat, and should 16 also clearly specify the benefits which could be achieved though these actions [4] . Considering this, and the Becoming aware of someone else's state, and reacting appropriately, is the ability we usually refer to 26 as 'empathy'. Being able to experience empathy for other people and adapting our behaviour as a result 27 might be associated with increased adherence to lockdown regulations. For example, seeing another living 28 being suffering or in pain has been shown to activate specific neural circuits in the brain that are involved in 29 pain perception and which cause an emotional response both at physiological and psychological levels [6, 9] . This emotional and physiological response is usually followed by an increase in the motivation to act in order 31 to reduce the pain experienced by the other being by changing the situation [6] . The tendency to act with a 32 pro-social attitude is likely to emerge from the interplay between genetic predisposition and environmental 33 influence [6] . Alongside empathy, positive mood has been associated with an increased predisposition to carry out 10 pro-social behaviours (this is usually referred to as the 'feel-good/do-good effect'; [10] ), suggesting that 11 promoting a positive atmosphere might increase adherence to norms and regulations. However, positive 12 changes in mood are also likely to emerge as a consequence of carrying out pro-social behaviours [11] . Although it would be difficult to increase 'true' conformity (i.e., people acting based on an internal motivation 2 instead of adhering to an external request), promoting social influencing within small or large groups of 3 friends and colleagues might be an effective way to promote adherence to government regulations during 4 the COVID-19 pandemic especially in regard to future localised lockdowns. Considering that the economy in some countries has been dramatically affected by lockdown 6 measures put in place in the initial phases of the pandemic and it is therefore less likely that governments 7 will implement the same drastic measures (for example, long-term closures of businesses) if a second wave 8 of infections will happen; it would be important to make sure that adhering to lockdown measures is 9 perceived as an individual responsibility, rather than the responsibility being diffused. A recent survey 'We are all in this together'. This sentence has been used by both governments and private agencies 28 since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic to highlight how everyone (worldwide) has been and will be 29 affected in the short-and long-term by the measures adopted to combat the spread of the disease. Recent studies (see, for example, [21] J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Considerations relating to social distancing 5 Too bored to bother? Boredom as a potential threat to the efficacy of 6 pandemic containment measures Mass media to communicate public health messages in six health topic areas: 10 a systematic review and other reviews of the evidence Analyzing the Structure and Content of Public Health 13 The theory of planned behavior The psychology of compassion and prosocial behaviour Empathy as a driver of prosocial behaviour: 19 highly conserved neurobehavioural mechanisms across species The developmental origins of The joys of helping: Focus of attention mediates the 1 impact of positive affect on altruism The Reciprocity of Prosocial Behaviour and Positive Affect in Daily Life Social learning of moral judgments The neuroscience of social conformity: implications for fundamental and 9 applied research The development and enforcement of group norms. The Academy of Management 11 Review Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology Social Proximity, and the 16 Erosion of Norm Compliance Do collectivists conform more than individualists? Cross-cultural differences in 18 compliance and internalization Managing the Covid-19 pandemic through individual responsibility: 21 the consequences of a world risk society and enhanced ethopolitics Social Norms and Pro-Environmental Behaviour The Spreading of Social Energy: How Exposure to Positive and Negative Social 8 CMMID COVID-19 working group Quantifying the impact of physical distance measures on the transmission of COVID-2 19 in the UK ☒ The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work ☐The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests I would like to thank Dr Jack Tomlin for providing precious help in refining the manuscript. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.