Working memory capacity predicts individual differences in social-distancing compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

Noncompliance with social distancing during the early stage of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic poses a great chal-lenge to the public health system. These noncompliance behaviors partly reflect people's concerns for the inherent costs of social distancing while discounting its public health benefits. We pro-pose that this oversight may be associated with the limitation in one's mental capacity to simultaneously retain multiple pieces of information in working memory (WM) for rational decision mak-ing that leads to social-distancing compliance. We tested this hy-pothesis in 850 United States residents during the first 2 wk following the presidential declaration of national emergency be-cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that participants' social-distancing compliance at this initial stage could be predicted by individual differences in WM capacity, partly due to increased awareness of benefits over costs of social distancing among higher WM capacity individuals. Critically, the unique contribution of WM capacity to the individual differences in social-distancing compli-ance could not be explained by other psychological and socioeco-nomic factors (e.g., moods, personality, education, and income levels). Furthermore, the critical role of WM capacity in social -distancing compliance can be generalized to the compliance with another set of rules for social interactions, namely the fairness norm, in Western cultures. Collectively, our data reveal contribu-tions of a core cognitive process underlying social-distancing compli-ance during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting a potential cognitive venue for developing strategies to mitigate a pub-lic health crisis.