Who Follows the Rules During a Crisis?—Personality Traits and Trust as Predictors of Compliance With Containment Recommendations During the COVID-19 Pandemic

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, many governments tried to contain spread of virus by legally restricting social life and imposing national lockdowns. The Swedish government did not enforce a lockdown, but instead appealed individual’s self-responsibility follow specific containment recommendations developed Public Health Agency. Sweden is thus an especially interesting case study because potential influence psychological attitudinal individual-level factors that might contribute compliance with recommendations. Drawing on previous literature how individuals respond during health crises, we define evaluate mediation model considers role personality traits trust authorities explain compliance. More specifically, argue need consider better understand relationship between In analyses based large-scale representative survey ( N = 1,034), find Conscientiousness be directly linked compliance, whereas Agreeableness, Neuroticism Openness were indirectly related when Agency was taken into account.