Political and community logics jointly affect ‘social distancing’ compliance

Abstract If conservative ideology encourages resistance to social distancing orders meant to mitigate a pandemic's spread, then under what conditions could this ideology cause people to obey such orders? We posit that community logic (i.e., community commitment, collective belief, and reciprocity) promotes compliance with public health policies in conservative communities. We analyzed residents’ compliance with social distancing orders in 3053 U.S. counties during the period between a governor issuing stay-at-home orders and April 24th, 2020. Our findings show that the interaction between regional political logic (i.e., political behavioral commitment and ideology) and community logic affects compliance with public health policies. Specifically, conservative ideology and political behavioral commitment lead to non-compliance with social distancing only in communities with weak community logic. Our insights contribute to the literature by highlighting the importance of community logic in promoting compliance with public health policies. Thus, policymakers should consider the joint effect of political logic and community logic when creating and implementing public health edicts.