Need satisfaction and compliance behaviors in two different phases of COVID-19 in China: Multiple mediation of social satisfaction, negative emotions, and risk perception

For three years, COVID-19 has significantly impacted people's need satisfaction worldwide, resulting in changes in compliance with COVID-19 protocols. This study aimed to examine the change in Chinese people's need satisfaction, compliance behaviors, and their relationship and mechanisms during two periods of the pandemic. Two studies were conducted using data from two rounds of a nationwide serial survey—the Chinese Social Mentality Survey (Study 1: March 2020, 8,717 participants; Study 2: April 2022, 6,118 participants). The relationship between need satisfaction and compliance behaviors was analyzed by constructing a multiple mediations model. The model highlights two relationship pathways: one draws from the health belief model and takes an individual perspective, with negative emotions and risk perception as the mediators; the other utilizes social identity theory and takes a social perspective, with social satisfaction and risk perception as the mediators. The results showed that Chinese people's living needs changed over time, from masks to food and medicine supply, and their development needs satisfaction decreased. However, the participants still displayed high compliance toward recommended behaviors and local policies, despite being less compliant with local policies than recommended individual behaviors. In Studies 1 and 2, respectively, negative emotions had a significant indirect effect on non-recommended behaviors and individual behaviors, but an insignificant indirect effect on recommended behaviors and compliance to local policies. The indirect effects of social satisfaction were significantly stronger and positive on all kinds of behaviors in Study 2, which buffered the negative indirect effects of negative emotions and risk perception. Therefore, using exaggeration to trigger negative emotions may be ineffective in promoting behavioral compliance in China. Improving government performance is crucial, especially when a pandemic has lasted for a long time.