The pandemic and the problem of compliance with safety measures: The case of Egypt.

Analysing data from a nationally representative sample of 3442 interviews conducted in Egypt in 2020, this study examines the influence of four sets of factors in predicting compliance with the advice of healthcare professionals to combat the spread of COVID-19: demographics, knowledge and values, fear of the disease and denial, and the pandemic as a foreign invasion. The findings show that a higher likelihood of compliance is linked to socioeconomic status, awareness of the pandemic, reliance on a plurality of information sources, adherence to liberal values, and fear of the disease, but being male, young, employed, religious, fatalistic, and in denial of the severity of the pandemic lower this likelihood - all consistent with the results reported in the literature. In addition, this study highlights the link between compliance and such attributes of nationalism as national identity, national pride, the perception of the pandemic as a national event, and the willingness to sacrifice one's human right to combat the spread of the disease. Drawing on these factors, this paper suggests building societal consensus around the theme of national unity against the microparasitic invasion is the key to an effective strategy to combat the spread of the virus.

Knowledge and beliefs about national development and developmental hierarchies: The viewpoints of ordinary people in thirteen countries.

Scholars and policy makers have for centuries constructed and used developmental hierarchies to characterize different countries. The hypotheses motivating this paper are that such social constructions have been circulated internationally, are constructed similarly in various countries, and follow the social constructions of elite international organizations, such as the United Nations. This paper uses data from 15 surveys in 13 diverse countries to study how developmental hierarchies are understood in everyday life. Our research shows that most people have constructions of developmental hierarchies that are similar across countries and are similar to the developmental hierarchies constructed by the United Nations. These findings suggest that developmental hierarchies are widely understood around the world and are widely available to ordinary people as they make decisions about many aspects of life.