Promoting Public Compliance through Information Disclosure: Effect of Disclosing Confirmed Cases’ Personal Information on Public Mobility during the COVID-19 Outbreak

• Published date: 01 February 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00953997231216989
• Author: Jiuchang Wei,Song Yang,Hemin Jiang
• Date: 01 February 2024

https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997231216989

Administration & Society

2024, Vol. 56(2) 172 –202

© The Author(s) 2023

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DOI: 10.1177/00953997231216989

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Article

Promoting Public

Compliance through

Information Disclosure:

Effect of Disclosing

Confirmed Cases’

Personal Information on

Public Mobility during

the COVID-19 Outbreak

Jiuchang Wei1,2, Song Yang1, and Hemin Jiang3

Abstract

Governments often disclose pandemic-related information to reduce

public mobility behavior during the initial outbreak stage of a pandemic

like COVID-19. Previous studies have examined the effects of whether to

disclose relevant information on public behavior but neglected the effects

of information content. Based on the disclosed personal information of

COVID-19 confirmed cases from 316 cities in China, we find that disclosing

demographic information of confirmed cases does not affect public mobility,

whereas disclosing their infection traceability information increases public

mobility and trajectory range information decreases public mobility. We also

find a U-shaped effect of information diversity on public mobility behavior.

Keywords

public compliance, information disclosure, COVID-19, mobility behavior

1School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

2State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

3International Institute of Finance, School of Management, University of Science and

Technology of China, Hefei, China

Corresponding Author:

Hemin Jiang, University of Science and Technology of China, Jinzhai road 96, Hefei, 230026, China.

Email: hmjiang@ustc.edu.cn

1216989AAS0010.1177/00953997231216989Administration & SocietyWei et al.

research-article2023

Wei et al. 173

Introduction

Regional and global pandemic crises, such as SARS, H1N1, and COVID-19,

have resulted in a surge of research on how governments can effectively

respond to pandemic crises (An et al., 2021; Dai et al., 2020). At the beginning

of a pandemic outbreak, when vaccines are still unavailable (Van Rooij et al.,

2020), authorities around the globe often employ non-pharmaceutical inter-

ventions, such as encouraging individuals to maintain social distancing and

home isolation to prevent the spread of the pandemic. However, these inter-

ventions would not have been effective without public compliance, which

refers to citizens obeying the government’s request or guidelines (French,

2011; Schnell & Jo, 2019). Policymakers often need to adopt effective regula-

tory strategies to promote public compliance, which necessitates thorough

consideration of cost/benefit trade-offs (Short, 2011; van der Heijden, 2021).

Accordingly, existing literature on policy instruments often emphasizes using

soft (or mixed) tools, such as persuasion and education, because these mea-

sures bear significantly lower administrative costs than coercive measures like

imposing penalties (Howlett et al., 1995). A notable example of this method is

embodied by responsive regulation theory (RRT; Ayres & Braithwaite, 1992),

which underlines the significance of a flexible and adaptive regulatory strat-

egy that fosters compliance and achieves desired results without necessitating

coercive measures (Gunningham & Sinclair, 2017).

According to the literature on RRT, an essential soft tool to encourage

public compliance is information disclosure, which can be defined as the

strategic provision of data, knowledge, support, and advice to influence

behaviors without coercion (Braithwaite, 2002). Consistent with RRT, recent

literature on smart regulations also highlights the significant role of informa-

tion disclosure (Gunningham & Sinclair, 2017). The smart regulations litera-

ture further emphasizes the importance of meticulously crafting information

content in a “smart” way (Van Gossum et al., 2010). The disclosure of appro-

priate information content allows the public to make informed decisions and

feel a sense of participation and inclusivity in the regulatory process. This

inclusive feeling, in turn, can improve public trust in authorities and the per-

ceived legitimacy of their actions, eventually increasing public compliance

and reinforcing the effectiveness of these actions (Gunningham & Sinclair,

2009). Thus, in a pandemic crisis, a commonly adopted strategy by govern-

ments to promote public compliance is to disclose pandemic-related informa-

tion (Dai et al., 2020). For example, following the COVID-19 outbreak, the

Chinese and South Korean governments disclosed not only pandemic sever-

ity information (the number of total cases and new cases) but also personal

information about where, when, and by which means of transportation the

confirmed cases have visited (M. S. Kim et al., 2021).