Dutiful Citizens: Predictors of COVID-19 Policy Complaint Behavior in India

With the aggravation of COVID-19 pandemic, there is increasing reliance on mitigation strategies such as compliance of COVID-19 behaviors (masking, social distancing, sanitizing, and so on). Political ideology reflects the way people conduct themselves in the social world, affecting their decisions and actions, including those pertaining to health care. Thus, maximizing COVID compliant behaviors mandates an understanding of its sociopolitical context. Study 1 aims to investigate the role of political ideology and collective narcissism in predicting COVID-19 policy support, physical hygiene, and social distancing in India. While political ideology was not associated with COVID-19 compliant behaviors, collective narcissism was found to significantly predict policy support and physical hygiene. However, considering the multi-party system in India, most people (apart from political elites) are not politically sophisticated enough to self-locate on an ideology scale. Thus, study 2 aimed to understand whether district-level partisanship affects mobility during COVID-19 in India. Results indicate that during the first wave of COVID-19 (May-October, 2020), there was a greater change in the amount of time spent at the places of residence in districts based on the partisanship. Further, during the second wave (April-June, 2021), partisanship predicted a higher change in mobility to groceries and pharmacies.