Effects of fundamental social motives on environmental variation of compliance during pandemics

Compliance with epidemic prevention norms has been found to be higher in developing regions than in developed regions; however, the nature and underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We propose that socioeconomic development of environments changes the adaptive benefits of fundamental social motives, especially disease avoidance and familial motives, which shape variations in compliance during pandemics. To examine the effects of these motives on the relationship between socioeconomic environments and compliance, we conducted three studies measuring environmental socioeconomic development with the Human Development Index (HDI). Study 1 (with two datasets: N = 43,244, 53 countries; N = 94,657, 71 countries) revealed a stable negative correlation between country-level HDI and compliance, even after controlling disease severity, government responses, and individualism. Studies 2 (an analysis of social media text data; N = 22,588, 31 provinces) and 3 (a large-sample survey; N = 6,122, 31 cities) replicated this correlation in China at the provincial and city levels, and identified disease avoidance and familial motives as mediators. These findings provide evidence for how socioeconomic environments shape compliance during pandemics, highlight the importance of familial motives alongside disease avoidance, and offer insights into tailoring public health strategies across diverse environments.