Deniers, Dissidents or Something More? Non-Compliance with COVID-19 Mitigation Measures as Political Reactionism

Since March,11 2020 when the WHO declared COVID-19 virus a pandemic, the sociopolitical effects of the health crisis have been in the epicenter of social science research. One of the issues that have attracted significant attention within the scientific community, is that of compliance with mitigation measures, as the highly contagious nature of the virus and the powerlessness of the states to enforce lockdowns for long, rendered the voluntary adherence to preventive policies crucial for slowing the spread of the pandemic and reducing the casualties. Then again, while the study of compliance with COVID-19 mitigation measures has increased exponentially in the last two years, we know remarkably little about the factors that drive non-compliance with public health orders. At the same time, the limited research on the topic has identified noncompliers as either COVID-19 deniers, individuals that reject the mere existence of the virus; or as dissidents, who recognise mandatory restrictions as an attempt of the state to suppress their freedom and exercise control over their everyday life. However, there has not been any study to empirically test the different assumptions regarding noncompliers yet. In an attempt to fill this research laguna, we study the social and political factors that lead individuals to non-compliance through the use of a novel dataset from eleven European countries. Based on our cross-national survey, we find that non-compliers are characterised by a reactionary orientation, which is manifested as a cluster of co-occurring anti preferences regarding issues such as immigration, climate change, the role of science, and the EU integration; and therefore we identify reactionism – defined as the political attitude that combines resentful affectivity with a sense of injustice and a desire to return to the past – as a strong driver of non-compliance with COVID-19.