A Network Approach to Compliance: A Complexity Science Understanding of How Rules Shape Behavior

Abstract

To understand how compliance develops both in everyday and corporate environments, it is crucial to understand how different mechanisms work together to shape individuals’ (non)compliant behavior. Existing compliance studies typically focus on a subset of theories (i.e., rational choice theories, social theories, legitimacy theories, capacity theories, and opportunity theories) to understand how key variables from one or several of these theories shape individual compliance. The present study provides a first integrated understanding of compliance, rooted in complexity science, in which key elements from these theories are considered simultaneously, and their relations to compliance and each other are explored using network analysis. This approach is developed by analyzing online survey data (N = 562) about compliance with COVID-19 mitigation measures. Traditional regression analysis shows that elements from nearly all major compliance theories (except for social theories) are associated with compliance. The network analysis revealed groupings and interconnections of variables that did not track the existing compliance theories and point to a complexity overlooked in existing compliance research. These findings demonstrate a fundamentally different perspective on compliance, which moves away from traditional narrow, non-network approaches. Instead, they showcase a complexity science understanding of compliance, in which compliance is understood as a network of interacting variables derived from different theories that interact with compliance. This points to a new research agenda that is oriented on mapping compliance networks, and testing and modelling how regulatory and management interventions interact with each other and compliance within such networks.

Cross-Theoretical Compliance: An Integrative Compliance Analysis of COVID-19 Mitigation Responses in Israel

“…It is likely that different compliance mechanisms will interrelate in complex ways that go beyond the present research. By systematically mapping the core variables from different theoretical strands of the compliance literature, the cross-theoretical approach that we have developed here can also be used to explore such questions and further advance our understanding of how the different theories and variables operate to shape compliance (see Kuiper et al, 2022). These are important questions that future research may well explore.…”

“…We operationalized our cross-theoretical approach by developing a survey, which measured core variables from each of the five major theoretical approaches in the compliance literature. This instrument was previously used to study compliance with COVID-19 mitigation measures in the United States (Van Rooij et al, 2020), the United Kingdom (Kooistra et al, 2020), and the Netherlands (Kuiper et al, 2022). The survey assessed participants’ perceptions of the costs of complying with mitigation measures, the threat of the virus, the certainty of punishment, and the severity of punishment (drawn from rational choice theories); social norms for complying with mitigation measures (social theories); moral alignment with mitigation measures, authority evaluation, felt obligation to obey the authorities, and procedural justice (legitimacy theories); capacity to comply, impulsivity, and negative emotions (capacity theories); and perceived opportunities for violating mitigation measures (opportunity theories).…”

“… 29. Similar to our studies in the United States (Van Rooij et al, 2020), the United Kingdom (Kooistra et al, 2020), and the Netherlands (Kuiper et al, 2022), our survey also included a measure assessing people’s knowledge of the mitigation measures. However, contrary to these other studies, our survey in Israel measured knowledge using Likert scales (i.e., the extent to which people think that these measures apply or not), instead of binary measures (whether the measures apply or not).…”

How enforcement shapes compliance with legal rules: the case of long-term care homes in Ontario

“…As the role of regulatory enforcement in preventing harm to residents remains under-explored in legal and socio-legal work on LTC, this article addresses this limitation by connecting compliance theories with experience of participants in the LTC sector in Ontario. The field of compliance examines the interaction between rules and conduct of individuals and organizations (van Rooij and Sokol 2021), and specifically how compliance develops both in everyday and corporate environments (Kuiper et al 2023). Studies explore how factors such as motives, organizational capacities (e.g., human resources) and characteristics (e.g., size) of regulatees, regulation and enforcement, and social and economic environments (or institutions) drive compliance (Nielsen and Parker 2011).…”

Quantifying the Stability Landscapes of Psychological Networks

“…In a network, each node represents an element of the system, and each edge represents a certain kind of relationship between a pair of elements. Network models have been applied to model many different psychological systems (Borsboom et al, 2021a;Robinaugh et al, 2020), for example, in the field of attitude formation and polarization (e.g., see Chambon, Dalege, Elberse, et al, 2022;Dalege et al, 2018;van der Maas et al, 2020), intelligence and learning (e.g., see Savi et al, 2021;van der Maas et al, 2006), compliance to rules in a legal context (e.g., see Chambon, Dalege, Borsboom, et al, 2022;Kuiper et al, 2022), substance abuse (e.g., see van den Ende et al, 2022), and psychopathology and mental health (e.g., see Borsboom, 2017;Borsboom et al, 2021b;Hasselman and Bosman, 2020). In those studies, networks provide a useful tool to conceptualize and explore the complexity of a specific system and to quantitatively visualize and analyze the interactions in the system.…”