The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about a situation. Participants from 87 countries and regions (n = 21,644) were randomly assigned to one of two brief reappraisal interventions (reconstrual or repurposing) or one of two control conditions (active or passive). Results revealed that both reappraisal interventions (vesus both control conditions) consistently reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions across different measures. Reconstrual and repurposing interventions had similar effects. Importantly, planned exploratory analyses indicated that reappraisal interventions did not reduce intentions to practice preventive health behaviours. The findings demonstrate the viability of creating scalable, low-cost interventions for use around the world.

Significance Communicating in ways that motivate engagement in social distancing remains a critical global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study tested motivational qualities of messages about social distancing (those that promoted choice and agency vs. those that were forceful and shaming) in 25,718 people in 89 countries. The autonomy-supportive message decreased feelings of defying social distancing recommendations relative to the controlling message, and the controlling message increased controlled motivation, a less effective form of motivation, relative to no message. Message type did not impact intentions to socially distance, but people’s existing motivations were related to intentions. Findings were generalizable across a geographically diverse sample and may inform public health communication strategies in this and future global health emergencies.

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Background Recent challenges in the working world that resulted from the pandemic and technological advances have underlined the importance of flexibility in how jobs are designed. Job crafting (JC) refers to self-initiated changes that employees introduce to their jobs to optimize their job design and increase the fit between the job and their needs and preferences. These behaviors can be stimulated by job crafting training interventions, which aim to change how individual employees design, organize, or manage their work. However, since the interventions are implemented in various ways, we do not know which context and intervention factors are necessary or sufficient to achieve desired outcomes. Without this knowledge, benefitting from the potential of job crafting interventions is limited. The overall aim of this project will be to investigate what combinations of context, intervention, and mechanism factors are linked with effective JC interventions. Specifically, we will detect what factors are minimally sufficient and/or necessary to produce a successful JC intervention, how they combine, as well as what are the multiple alternative paths to their success. Methods We will perform a systematic review of the JC interventions literature combined with coincidence analysis (CNA). We will search electronic databases of journals and utilize Rayyan software to make decisions regarding inclusion. Data regarding context (e.g., fit), intervention (e.g., types of activities), mechanisms (e.g., intention implementation), and outcomes (e.g., employee well-being, job performance) will be extracted using a pre-piloted form and coded into a crisp-set (factor present vs. absent). Analyses will be carried out using the CNA package in R. Discussion This review will address gaps in knowledge about the context, intervention, and mechanism-related factors that may impact the effects of JC interventions. Consequently, this review will help develop a program theory for JC interventions that explains what works, how and under which circumstances. Applying CNA to synthesize these complex solutions across multiple studies provides an innovative method that may be used in future review attempts evaluating the implementation of interventions. Finally, our synthesis will provide knowledge relevant to organizational practitioners and scholars who want to implement JC interventions. Trial registration https://osf.io/2g6yx