In the current pandemic, both self-regulated health-protective behavior and government-imposed regulations are needed for successful outbreak mitigation. Going forward, researchers and decision-makers must therefore understand the factors contributing to individuals’ engagement in health-protective behavior, and their support for government regulations. Integrating knowledge from the literatures on self-control and cooperation, we explore an informed selection of potential predictors of individuals’ health-protective behaviors as well as their support for government regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Aiming for a conceptual replication in two European countries, we collected data in Switzerland (N = 352) and the UK before (N = 212) and during lockdown (n = 132) and conducted supervised machine learning for variable selection, followed by OLS regression, cross-sectionally and, in the UK sample, across time. Results showed that personal importance of outbreak mitigation and beliefs surrounding others’ cooperation are associated with both health-protective behavior and support for government regulations. Further, Swiss participants high in trait self-control engaged in health-protective behavior more often. Interestingly, perceived risk, age, and political orientation consistently displayed nonsignificant weak to zero associations with both health-protective behavior and support. Together, these findings highlight the contribution of self-control theories in explaining COVID-19-relevant outcomes, and underscore the importance of contextualizing self-control within the cooperative social context.

IntroductionParamedics are at high risk for the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), trauma-related symptoms, and burnout. Despite the multitude of research linking both PTSD and burnout with poor sleep quality, there has been no research linking all three variables, in emergency workers or otherwise. Given the importance of sleep in a profession that is largely reliant on shift work, the goal of the current study was to examine the moderating effect of burnout on the association between post-traumatic stress and average sleep quality. MethodsA sample of 87 paramedics from major urban centres across Canada completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the PTSD Checklist Civilian Version, in addition to reporting sleep quality for a period of one week. ResultsIn support of our hypotheses, post-traumatic stress was associated with lower average sleep quality. Standard regression analyses further revealed that this effect was moderated by burnout, such that higher burnout exacerbated the effect of post-traumatic stress on sleep. In examination of the subscales of the MBI, this effect was maintained for personal accomplishment only, which interacted with stress so as to further impair quality of sleep.ConclusionsThese findings offer important considerations regarding the mitigating role of more positive workplace variables in paramedics suffering from post-traumatic stress, PTSD, and/or sleep problems. Interventions aimed at fostering a sense of personal accomplishment on the job may improve the health of emergency medical personnel via multiple pathways.

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A substantial share of the required reductions in greenhouse gas emissions can result from changes to individual consumer behaviors. While the technical mitigation potential of changing consumer behaviors is well-established, evidence on the feasibility of impactful behavior change remains scarcer. In a large, pre-registered international survey with mostly North American and European participants (N = 7,349), we examined the predictors and interrelationships between people’s perceived feasibility of changing consumer behaviors with low and high climate impact, their performance of these behaviors, and their support for behavior-regulating climate policies. We found using multiple regression analyses that the key predictors of perceived behavioral plasticity, policy support, and behavioral performance were the perceived need for system change and environmental identity with more mixed results observed for the perceived effectiveness of individual action for mitigating climate change and trust in government. Our findings underscore the untapped potential of changing individual behaviors to accelerate climate change mitigation, showing that there is considerable plasticity in several high-impact behaviors and that individual behavior change need not preclude support for political change.

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