How Government Credibility and Social Morality Work in a Public Health Emergency. A Study of Public Quarantine Willingness in COVID‐19

This study explores the relationships among the variables: willingness to quarantine, perception of the epidemic, willingness to do outdoor activities, government credibility, and public morality. To understand these relationships, it integrates theories including epidemic prevention and control, government credibility, public morality, and social network systems. Structural equation modeling (SEM) with bootstrapping estimation was conducted using data calculated from 368 healthy citizens who are quarantining at home due to COVID-19 in Chinese cities that have launched a first-level primary public safety incident response. The results show that residents’ perception of the epidemic has a positive effect on their willingness to quarantine, and willingness to do outdoor activities has a negative effect. Moreover, government credibility and public morality have a mediating effect on the relationship between the perception of epidemic and willingness to quarantine. What is more, government credibility has a moderating effect on the relationship between willingness to do outdoor activities and willingness to quarantine. We discuss the implications of these results for beating future epidemics that may break out.