Compliance with health safety guidelines is essential during pandemics. However, political polarization in the U.S. is reducing compliance. We investigated how polarized perceptions of government leaders’ autonomy-support and enforcement policies impacted security and internally-motivated compliance with national (Study 1a) and state (Study 1b) safety guidelines. We surveyed 773 Republicans and Democrats from four states (California, Florida, New York, Texas) during the first wave of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, participants perceived that the decision processes of opposing political administrations did not support their autonomy. Lack of autonomy-support was associated with reduced security and internal motivations to comply (R² = 50.83%). When political administrations enforced health safety mandates (Democrat state leaders in this study) and were perceived as autonomy-supportive, participants reported the highest security and internally-motivated compliance (R² = 49.57%). This effect was especially pronounced for Republicans, who reacted negatively to enforcement without autonomy-support. Political leaders who use fair and supportive decision-making processes may legitimize enforcement of health safety guidelines, improving compliance.

在大流行期间，遵守健康安全准则至关重要。然而，美国的政治两极分化正在降低合规性。我们调查了对政府领导人的自主支持和执法政策的两极分化看法如何影响安全和内部动机对国家（研究 1a）和州（研究 1b）安全准则的遵守。在 2020 年第一波 COVID-19 大流行期间，我们调查了来自四个州（加利福尼亚州、佛罗里达州、纽约州、德克萨斯州）的 773 名共和党人和民主党人。总体而言，参与者认为反对政治行政部门的决策过程不支持他们的自治。缺乏自主支持与安全性和内部遵从动机降低有关（R ² = 50.83%)。当政治行政部门强制执行健康安全任务（本研究中的民主党国家领导人）并被视为支持自主时，参与者报告了最高的安全性和内部动机合规性（R ²  = 49.57%）。这种影响对共和党人来说尤其明显，他们对没有自治支持的执法反应消极。使用公平和支持性决策过程的政治领导人可以使健康安全准则的执行合法化，从而提高合规性。