Without a doubt, we learned a lot about compliance, the act of getting people to do what we think they should be doing. When it comes to the pandemic, compliance involved wearing masks, distancing from others and not gathering in large groups. And what we in fact learned is what we should have already known. Getting people to comply is not easy. The pandemic has shown us how complicated simple things can be. Although many people did follow the rules, many, many others simply did not or were not able to be consistent. They could not keep away from others, could not keep away from family, could not wear a mask properly and could not disconnect socially. Some people did not believe, some people could not believe, and some people mimicked others and behaved as they saw others around them behaving.On the face of it, noncompliance may be a source of annoyance and irritation for some, especially those who do make an effort to comply. But if we look at the scientific literature regarding adherence and compliance, none of this should have at all been surprising. All the more reason to question why, with an event like a pandemic that has so many national health implications, we were not better prepared to implement policies that would deal with the reality that compliance would be far from perfect. The lack of a sensible plan on how to respond no doubt contributed to worsening infection rates and, as a consequence, created a catastrophic economic collapse for so many. Were the expectations regarding compliance realistic? If we look at the science, the answer is an unequivocal no. People who know smoking is bad continue to smoke, people who should keep to a diet continue to cheat, people who should exercise sit on the couch and people who should take medication often set it aside. But it is not only with respect to health that guidelines are not followed. How often do we follow the speed limit to the letter of the law and how often do we jaywalk? How often do people make noise late into the night? How often do people take a chance and swim without a lifeguard? In wartime as well, when one would think life and death means something, we have seen situations where some people would not wear gas masks, where some would not enter shelters and where some would stand on rooftops to watch missiles coming in. WITH ALL this as known behavior, perhaps the expectations regarding adherence to guidelines should have considered that widespread compliance is but a fantasy. Human behavior is consistent, so we do see this lack of compliance all over the free world. Masking is inconsistent, infection rates are high and nowhere, except in some exceptional circumstances where cultural factors are very different, do we see success. Expecting anything different was always an illusion. No matter how hard we would try, there would be leakage in keeping to the rules because people do not listen. And when each leaked drop is a potential weapon, a virus that can disable and kill, we have a problem.

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COVID-19: What have we learned about human behavior in 2020? - opinion - The Jerusalem Post