You Must Stay at Home! The Impact of Commands on Behaviors During COVID-19

“You must stay at home!” This is how the UK Prime Minister announced lockdown in March 2020. Many countries implemented similarly assertive messages. Research, however, suggests that authoritative language can backfire by inciting psychological reactance (i.e., feelings of anger arising from threats to one’s autonomy). In a series three studies, we therefore tested whether commanding versus control and noncommanding messages influence several cognitive affective indicators reactance, intentions comply with COVID-19 recommendations, compliance behavior itself. Although people found threatening felt angry negative toward them, these impacted only intentions, but there was no evidence behavioral reactance. Overall, our research constitutes most comprehensive examination cognitive–affective regarding commands date offers new insights into both theory communication.