Identifying as someone who avoids virus transmission strengthens physical distancing habit‐behaviour relationships: A longitudinal multi‐national study during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Physical distancing remains an important initiative tocurb COVID-19 and virus transmission more broadly.This exploratory study investigated how physical dis-tancing behaviour changed during the COVID-19 pan-demic and whether it was associated with identity withvirus transmission avoidance and physical distancinghabit strength. In a longitudinal, multinational studywith fortnightly repeated-assessments, associations andmoderation effects were considered for both overall(person-level means) and occasion-specific deviationsin habit and identity. Participants (N=586,Mage=42, 79% female) self-reported physical distanc-ing behavioural frequency, physical distancing habitstrength, and identity with avoiding virus transmission.Physical distancing followed a cubic trajectory, withinitial high engagement decreasing rapidly beforeincreasing again near study end. Physical distancingwas associated with both overall and occasion-specificvirus transmission avoidant identity and physical distancing habit strength. People with strong virustransmission avoidant identity engaged in physical dis-tancing frequently regardless of fluctuations in habitstrength. However, for those with weaker virustransmission avoidant identity, physical distancing wasstrongly aligned with fluctuations in habit strength. Toenhance engagement in physical distancing, publichealth messaging might fruitfully target greater ormore salient virus-transmission avoidance identity andstronger physical distancing habit.