Influence of Empathy Disposition and Risk Perception on the Psychological Impact of Lockdown During the Coronavirus Disease Pandemic Outbreak

Abstract

During the current COVID-19 pandemic, and especially in the absence of availability of an effective treatment or a vaccine, the main health measure is neither chemical nor biological, but behavioral. To reduce the exponential growth of infections due to the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and the resulting overburdening of the healthcare system, many European Countries, parts of the US and Switzerland gradually implemented measures of quarantine and isolation defined as lockdown. This consideration leads to the need to understand how individuals are motivated to protect themselves and others. Recent research suggested that prosocial mental dispositions, such as empathy, might promote adherence to social norms of distancing. Other research conducted during the COVID-19 outbreak indicates, however, that empathy levels might fluctuate according to anxiety linked to the risk of death, and this negatively predicted prosocial willingness. The present protocol proposes a study on whether people's empathic dispositions, interacting with the levels of risk, influence the psychological impact of lockdown. The rationale is that emphatic dispositions, encouraging the acceptance of the lockdown, determine a better psychological adaptation and less distress. One retrospective study will be developed in Switzerland and, if the pandemic conditions force a new wave of lockdown on the population, one prospective study as well. A total of 120 participants will be involved, distinguished by their level of objective risk: (1) high objective risk (COVID-19 positive patients, hospitalized in isolation in post-acute phase); (2) moderate objective risk (COVID-19 positive patients, isolated at home); (3) minimum objective risk (non-positive adults, in lockdown). Measures of perceived risk of being contagious for third parties, empathic dispositions and acceptance of lockdown will be collected. The expected results provide important answers related to the immediate impact of empathic dispositions, effective risk and risk perception on the psychological impact of lockdown during a pandemic outbreak. Data gathered from this study could inform policy makers and public health managers about the best communication strategies that will take into account the various stages of health risk and, in particular, to modulate messages to the population aimed at inducing self-isolation behaviors.

The interplay between risk and protective factors during the initial height of the COVID-19 crisis in Italy: The role of risk aversion and intolerance of ambiguity on distress

“…Finally, research suggests that the willingness to adhere to the quarantine and lockdown measures is more prominent in individuals perceiving the threat as more dangerous (Dryhurst et al, 2020) and among those who have pronounced prosocial traits (Pfattheicher et al, 2020). As a result of this association, those individuals might also experience a better adaptation to the measures of restriction of freedom and better mental health (Grignoli et al, 2021;Petrocchi et al, 2021). Therefore, following the above mentioned considerations, we conjectured that:…”

“…Utility of the Lockdown Participants were asked to indicate their perceived utility of the lockdown to stop spreading COVID-19. It was evaluated with 3 items, developed ad-hoc (Grignoli et al, 2021;Petrocchi et al, 2021), with response options on a 5-point scale ranging from "strongly false" to "strongly true". The items were: "Lockdown is not very effective to stop the spread of COVID-19", "So many people are affected by COVID-19 that lockdown is useless", and "COVID-19 is not very contagious, so lockdown is useless".…”

“…All participants evaluated all the 8 emotional reactions referred to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those items were created adhoc for the present investigation, however similar questions were asked in another study on adults during COVID-19 (Grignoli et al, 2021;Petrocchi et al, 2021). Reverse score was applied to the positive emotions and a total score was calculated as average.…”

The Influence of Post-Traumatic Growth on College Students’ Creativity During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediating Role of General Self-Efficacy and the Moderating Role of Deliberate Rumination

“…Pandemics and government-mandated measures of quarantine and isolation defined as lockdown have an impact on mental health of general population (Brooks et al, 2020). People suffered from depression, anxiety, insomnia, stress, addiction symptoms, and the persistence of avoidance behaviors due to infection fears, reduced social activities, loss of accessibility to basic necessities, and financial loss during the pandemics (Brooks et al, 2020;Rossi et al, 2020;Grignoli et al, 2021). During the COVID-19 pandemic, a study of 1,210 respondents in China showed that 84.7% spent 20-24 h per day at home and experienced the rates of moderate to severe depression and anxiety of 16.5 and 28.8%, respectively (Wang et al, 2020).…”

Empathy predicts self-isolation behaviour acceptance during coronavirus risk exposure

“…Individuals were recruited by phone and could decide between the paper-pencil questionnaire or the online version. This research project has been conducted in accordance with the protocol 32 , the Declaration of Helsinki, the principles of Good Clinical Practice, the Human Research Act (HRA) and the Human Research Ordinance (HRO), as well as other locally relevant regulations. The study was approved by the Cantonal Ethical Committee (N. 2020-01460 /CE3679).…”