Beliefs in government benevolence can promote individuals' compliance with government‐issued guidelines: The role of positive affect and general construal level

As the U.S. and the world continues to grapple with the health and economic damages caused by the COVID‐19 pandemic, it is vital to understand the correlates of individuals' compliance with the U.S. CDC's (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines for this pandemic to aid the country's recovery from this crisis and shed light on risk mitigation in future crises. The present research examines why some individuals complied with the CDC's COVID‐19 guidelines to a greater extent than others during the first wave of the pandemic in the U.S. We propose the model grounded in the beliefs‐affect‐engagement framework and integrate research on benevolence and construal level theory to provide an explanation. In a two‐wave survey study conducted in March–April 2020, we found that the beliefs in the U.S. federal government's benevolence held by individuals with high general construal levels were positively related to the extent to which they complied with the CDC's COVID‐19 guidelines, in part due to their positive affect; however, among individuals with low general construal levels, their beliefs in the U.S. federal government's benevolence were not predictive of their compliance. Based on our findings, we discuss theoretical implications and practical insights about facilitative factors for public compliance with government‐issued guidelines during crises.