Fighting ahead: Adoption of social distancing in COVID-19 outbreak through the lens of theory of planned behavior

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study, being explorative, aims to identify the antecedents of social distancing behavior among people in a collective society, in Bangladesh. Based on the social-psychological behavioral model, i.e. theory of planned behavior (TPB), the current study incorporates attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intention to assess their influence on actual social distancing behavior. The present study followed the deductive reasoning approach to conduct the research. A self-administered questionnaire was utilized to collect data from 331 respondents through social networks purposively and later analyzed using SPSS-21 and AMOS-20 to test the hypotheses. The results revealed that attitude toward social distancing, social pressure, and perceived control to social distance significantly influence the intention to maintain social distance. The core finding is that perceived behavioral control (directly and indirectly) is the most profound antecedent followed by subjective norms of both intention and actual social distancing behavior. We conclude by providing policy implications for policymakers and health concerns to focus on upholding the attitudinal awareness, normative beliefs, and self-control approach of people for maintaining social distance and behave proactively to contain the outbreak, as well as potential notes for further research.