Understanding Non-Compliance with Prevention Measures against COVID-19 Infections in Germany [U-COMPLY]

为了防止新冠肺炎感染的进一步传播和致命疾病后果，需要更深入地了解违反现行新冠肺炎预防措施的原因。这一理解将促进对大流行应对措施的知情评估、适应和沟通。这需要两个方面：1)识别不遵守此类措施的人群；2)检查导致不遵守的行动产生机制。因此，该项目旨在提供不同人群违反规定行为(例如，戴口罩、限制接触和行动半径、前往高危地区后进行测试或遵守隔离)的程度的清单。在此基础上，本项目的主要目标是通过分析个人和情况特点在国家和地方大流行情况下的影响，解释违反预防措施的行为。为了更好地理解这种侵犯行为背后的行为产生机制，我们使用了当前通过个人和情景特征的相互作用来解释人类行为的理论(如心理双过程理论、框架选择的社会学模型、犯罪学的情景行为理论和医学社会学的文化-行为模型)。项目的经验基础将通过收集和分析各种数据来源来提供。首先，个人层面的小组数据将提供有关实际行为、个人特征及其随时间变化的信息--反映人们对大流行的适应。其次，将进行析因情景实验，以操纵情景特征，否则由于伦理和实践方面的考虑，这将是具有挑战性的。这种实验方法对于检验因果假说和研究动作产生机制特别有用。第三，关于大流行的当地和临时状况的区域信息(例如，感染或死亡的发生率)将与调查数据联系起来。这使得研究个体对疫情演变的反应成为可能。结合这些不同的数据源将更好地理解行为违规的原因，以便针对不同人群制定针对新冠肺炎的干预措施。该项目的调查结果将被用来得出关于如何引起行为改变和改变基本社会规范的建议，例如，通过调整指导方针并将其传达给特定群体(例如，父母、高危群体、独居者)。

To prevent the further spread of COVID-19 infections and fatal disease outcomes, a deeper understanding of the causes of violations of current COVID-19 prevention measures is needed. This understanding will facilitate informed assessment, adaptation, and communication of pandemic response measures. This requires two aspects: 1) identifying populations that are not complying with such measures; and 2) examining the action-generating mechanisms that lead to non-compliance.Therefore, this project aims to provide an inventory of the extent to which different populations violate prescribed behaviors (e.g., wearing masks, restricting contact and movement radii, testing after travel to high-risk areas, or complying with quarantine). Building on this, the main goal of this project is to explain the violations of preventive measures by analyzing the influence of personal and situational characteristics in the context of the national and local state of the pandemic. To better understand the action-generating mechanisms behind such violations, we use current theories that explain human behavior through the interplay of personal and situational characteristics (such as psychological Dual-Process Theories, the sociological Model of Frame Selection, the criminological Situational Action Theory, and the Cultural-Behavioral Model from medical sociology).The empirical basis of the project will be provided by the collection and analysis of various data sources. First, person-level panel data will provide information on actual behaviors, personal characteristics, and their changes over time – reflecting people's adaptations to the pandemic. Second, factorial vignette experiments will be conducted to manipulate situational characteristics, which would otherwise be challenging due to ethical and practical concerns. This experimental method is particularly useful for testing causal hypotheses and investigating action-generating mechanisms. Third, regional information on the local and temporal status of the pandemic (e.g., the incidence of infections or deaths) will be linked to the survey data. This allows for the study of individual responses to the evolution of the pandemic.Combining these different data sources will yield a better understanding of the causes of behavioral breaches in order to develop interventions against COVID-19 for different populations. The project's findings will be used to derive recommendations on how to induce behavioral change and alter underlying social norms, e.g., by adapting guidelines and communicating them to specific groups (e.g., parents, at-risk groups, those living alone).