Following the Rules

If you are brought up to do as you are told, you may spend a lifetime following the rules. As a generalisation girls are more compliant than boys until adolescence. Boys tend to be more independent & risk taking. There is lots of research evidence for this. 

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00543213/document

As adults we mostly live within the Laws enacted by our Government. If we don't we may have to face the "Full force of the Law" & end up in prison.

I am intrigued by what has happened since the first Covid Lockdown in March 2020

https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/timeline-lockdown-web.pdf

Life has changed in so many ways, but not least that we have become completely ruled by the legislation enacted to deal with the Pandemic & the voluntary compliance with other rules.

What really interests me is the differences in how individuals interpret what they should & shouldn't be doing. I would contend that no one can possibly not know which behaviours are not allowed. If they aren't sure they have the internet, the media & numerous other sources of information to check. There really is no excuse unless one is disabled. 

Yet people are finding ways round the rules all the time. They are ignoring distancing & mask wearing. They are travelling abroad for all sorts of spurious reasons. Travellers are not self isolating. Ipsos Mori has been polling attitudes to rules & legislation throughout the pandemic.

https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/public-opinion-covid-19-coronavirus-pandemic

I don't want to get Covid - I'm 76 & have underlying conditions which mean I have to shield. Fortunately I've had both jabs. I'm not likely to be a risk to anyone else. I do follow the rules, whilst applying my own risk assessment.

I'm just really baffled by the attitudes of people who don't - deliberately. Do they give themselves reasons why the rules don't apply to them? Don't they care if they get the virus? Don't they care if they pass the virus on to someone else who becomes seriously ill or dies? Don't they believe the danger of the virus is real, despite all the graphic media & news coverage? Do they really believe the ridiculous myths & conspiracy theories (a Covid Infodemic)? Why are they resiting having the vaccine?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/eight-persistent-covid-19-myths-and-why-people-believe-them/

https://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/2020/04/covid-top-10-current-conspiracy-theories/

We humans have a wide range of intelligence, skills, experience & expertise. The people who have accurate information & are in positions of power & influence have to use all our modern methods of communication in order to take the population with them. 

In order for populations to  follow the Rules you either need to have a dictatorship where people are forced to comply, or a really well run, well informed, democracy. 

Sadly we don't seem to have either. Luckily, most people are doing their best.