TY - JOUR
T1 - Motivating voluntary compliance to behavioural restrictions
T2 - Self-determination theory–based checklist of principles for COVID-19 and other emergency communications
AU - Martela, Frank
AU - Hankonen, Nelli
AU - Ryan, Richard M.
AU - Vansteenkiste, Maarten
PY - 2021/1/17
Y1 - 2021/1/17
N2 - An effective response to crises like the COVID-19 pandemic is dependent on the public voluntarily adhering to governmental rules and guidelines. How the guidelines are communicated can significantly affect whether people will experience a sense of self-initiation and volition, protecting compliance from eroding. From the perspective of Self-Determination Theory, a broad theory on human motivation and its interpersonal determinants, effective communication involves the delicate combination of providing rules and structure in a caring and autonomy-supportive way. Research in applied domains from public messaging to education and health has shown that when social agents set limits in more autonomy-supportive, caring, and competence-fostering ways, it predicts autonomous forms of compliance, which in turn predict greater adherence and long-term persistence. Building on SDT, integrated with insights from social identity theory, we derive a practice-focused checklist with key communication guidelines to foster voluntary compliance in national crises such as the prevention of COVID-19 spread.
AB - An effective response to crises like the COVID-19 pandemic is dependent on the public voluntarily adhering to governmental rules and guidelines. How the guidelines are communicated can significantly affect whether people will experience a sense of self-initiation and volition, protecting compliance from eroding. From the perspective of Self-Determination Theory, a broad theory on human motivation and its interpersonal determinants, effective communication involves the delicate combination of providing rules and structure in a caring and autonomy-supportive way. Research in applied domains from public messaging to education and health has shown that when social agents set limits in more autonomy-supportive, caring, and competence-fostering ways, it predicts autonomous forms of compliance, which in turn predict greater adherence and long-term persistence. Building on SDT, integrated with insights from social identity theory, we derive a practice-focused checklist with key communication guidelines to foster voluntary compliance in national crises such as the prevention of COVID-19 spread.
KW - Autonomy-support
KW - crisis response
KW - interpersonal interaction
KW - motivational style
KW - self-determination theory
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85099568415&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10463283.2020.1857082
DO - 10.1080/10463283.2020.1857082
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85099568415
JO - EUROPEAN REVIEW OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
JF - EUROPEAN REVIEW OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
SN - 1046-3283
ER -