Fostering compliance with physical distancing by interactive feedback in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: A web-based randomized controlled trial

Background: To slow down the spread of COVID-19, the observance of basic hygiene measures, and physical distancing is recommended. Initial findings suggest that physical distancing in particular can prevent the spread of COVID-19. Objectives: To investigate how information to prevent the spread of infectious diseases should be presented to increase willingness to comply with preventive measures. Methods: In a preregistered online experiment, 817 subjects were presented with either interactively controllable graphics on the spread of COVID-19 and information that enable them to recognize how much the spread of COVID-19 is reduced by physical distancing (experimental group) or text-based information about quantitative evidence (control group). It was hypothesized that participants receiving interactive information on the prevention of COVID-19 infections show a significantly higher willingness to comply with future containment measures than participants reading the text-based information. Explorative analyses were conducted to examine whether other factors influence compliance. Results: As predicted, we found a small effect (d = 0.22, 95% CI: 0.11; 0.23, p < .001) for the tested intervention. The exploratory analysis suggests a decline in compliance later in the study (r = −0.10, 95% CI: −0.15; −0.07). Another significant predictor of change in compliance was health-related anxiety, but the effect was trivial. Conclusions: When presented interactively, information on how the own behavior can help prevent infectious diseases can lead to slightly stronger changes in attitude towards behavioral prevention measures than just text-based information. Given the scalability of this simple internet-based intervention, it could play a role in fostering compliance during a pandemic within universal prevention strategies. Future work on the predictive validity of self-reported compliance and the real-world effects on the intervention is needed.