A comparative analysis of U.S. state government communication and resident compliance to CDC COVID-19 guidelines

ABSTRACT As COVID-19 raged through the United States, Americans were inundated with messages from multiple and competing sources, some based on political ideologies, fueled by misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation via cable and social media. This study uses the IDEA model for effective instructional risk and crisis communication to examine the role of state governors in encouraging compliance with public health recommendations. It examines the relationships between messages sent in high- and low-compliance states, between state compliance levels and tendencies in public attitudes, and between messages sent and resident decisions about COVID-19 compliance. We analyzed press release messages from governors of five states with high immigrant populations and surveyed the public in these states to examine compliance rates regarding COVID-19 protective actions. Findings illustrate that perceived source credibility is critical to behavioral compliance regardless of message content adherence and that political ideology may become a competing narrative and may influence resident decisions.