Psychological and situational profiles of social distance compliance during COVID-19. (Special Issue: COVID-19 and health inequities: insights from communication research and practice.)

Background: Health advice in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has called upon the public to re-evaluate risk associated with recently routine behavior. However, differences in demographics, situational circumstances, and psychological dispositions create inequities in how people are able to respond to risks presented by the virus. Method: Within a sample of 482 Americans, we examined the frequency of behavior reconceptualized as 'risky' by CDC public health guidelines released on 30 March 2020. We applied a cluster analysis using a data-driven persona framework from the field of user-design research, using only situational and dispositional (i.e. psychological) variables to identify profiles of individuals.