People follow COVID rules when their friends do
The influence of people’s friends and immediate family has the biggest effect on their adherence to government restrictions to control the COVID-19 pandemic. The best predictor of people’s compliance with the rules was how much their close circle complied with the rules, and this social influence had an even stronger effect than people’s own approval of those rules.
The study surveyed people in more than 100 countries and found that the results were the same regardless of the severity of the pandemic locally and the strength of restrictions. The study also found that people who were particularly bonded to their country were more likely to stick to lockdown rules treating their country like family.