Why Did Israelis Comply with COVID-19 Mitigation Measures During the Initial First Wave Lockdown?

Abstract

This paper investigates why Israeli citizens complied with measures taken to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 virus in early April. At the time, Israel had relatively stringent mitigation measures that encouraged people to stay at home and keep a safe social distance. The data of 411 adult participants, gathered using survey research, showed that overall, compliance levels at that time were high. It finds that compliance depended on a combination of moral factors, such as people’s moral duty to obey the law and people’s tendency to obey the law generally. In addition, people who had friends over 75 years old were more likely to comply. Furthermore, people were more likely to comply if they were able to do so, and less likely to violate if they did not have the opportunity to do so. The study did not find that fear of punishment (deterrence) was significantly associated with compliance. Overall, these findings are in line with studies conducted the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.

Keywords: COVID-19, compliance, social distancing, deterrence, public health, social norms

JEL Classification: I12, k42