Measuring Realistic and Symbolic Threats of COVID-19 and their Unique Impacts on Wellbeing and Adherence to Public Health Behaviors

Kachanoff, Frank; Bigman, Yochanan E.; Kapsaskis, Kyra

doi:10.31234/osf.io/5zr3w

Cited by 39 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Covid-19 pandemic [32,33] and can be classified as realistic threats, defined as general concerns for one's well-being [34]. While realistic threats are often related to a personal lack of control, they reflect diverse needs.…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first need relates to the immediate risk of losing important resources (including one's life) and the second to the threat of being unable to cope with the situation (see, e.g., [31]). Research has shown that perceived threats predict attitudes (e.g., [32,35,36]), so we examined whether and how the threat of Covid-19 inspires greater support for potential surveillance technologies.…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

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The acceptance of Covid-19 tracking technologies: The role of perceived threat, lack of control, and ideological beliefs

2020

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New technological solutions play an important role in preventing the spread of Covid-19. Many countries have implemented tracking applications or other surveillance systems, which may raise concerns about privacy and civil rights violations but may be also perceived by citizens as a way to reduce threat and uncertainty. Our research examined whether feelings evoked by the pandemic (perceived threat and lack of control) as well as more stable ideological views predict the acceptance of such technologies. In two studies conducted in Poland, we found that perceived personal threat and lack of personal control were significantly positively related to the acceptance of surveillance technologies, but their predictive value was smaller than that of individual differences in authoritarianism and endorsement of liberty. Moreover, we found that the relationship between the acceptance of surveillance technologies and both perceived threat and lack of control was particularly strong among people high in authoritarianism. Our research shows that the negative feelings evoked by the unprecedented global crisis may inspire positive attitudes towards helpful but controversial surveillance technologies but that they do so to a lesser extent than ideological beliefs.

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Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

The acceptance of Covid-19 tracking technologies: The role of perceived threat, lack of control, and ideological beliefs

2020

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“…global surveillance, quarantine, isolation facilities, and control practices) in an attempt to reduce human to human transmission (WHO, 2020). The potential impacts and accompanying uncertainty of these measures are unprecedented in recent history (12). Interestingly, as individuals are generally poor predictors of their future affect (13,14), people who have yet to experience COVID-19-related countermeasures should experience the impact of these measures as less severe than people already experiencing them.…”

Section: The Effects Of Sudden Changes In External Circumstances On Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceived efficacy of COVID-19 restrictions, reactions and their impact on mental health during the early phase of the outbreak in six countries

Mækelæ¹,

Reggev²,

Dutra³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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The COVID-19 pandemic forced millions of people to drastically change their social life habits as governments employed harsh restrictions to reduce the spread of the virus. Although beneficial to physical health, the perception of physical distancing and related countermeasures could impact mental health. In a pre-registered online survey, we assessed how effective a range of countermeasures were perceived, how severely they affected daily life, general distress and paranoia during the early phase of the outbreak in Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Israel, Norway and US.Most of our over 2000 respondents rated the countermeasures as effective. School closings were perceived as having the strongest effect on daily life. Participants who believed their country reacted too mildly perceived the risk of contracting Sars-CoV-2 to be higher, were more worried and expressed reduced beliefs in the ability to control the outbreak. Relatedly, dissatisfaction with governmental actions corresponded with increased distress levels.Together, we found that satisfaction with one's governmental actions and fear appraisal play an important role in assessing the efficacy of countermeasures during the pandemic and their related psychological outcomes. These findings inform policy-makers on the psychological factors that strengthen resilience and foster the well-being of citizens in times of global crisis.

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“…global surveillance, quarantine, isolation facilities and control practices) in an attempt to reduce human-to-human transmission [ 1 ]. The potential impacts and accompanying uncertainty of these measures are unprecedented in recent history [ 14 ]. Interestingly, as individuals are generally poor predictors of their future effect ([ 15 , 16 ] but see [ 17 ]), people who have yet to experience COVID-19-related restrictions should experience the impact of these measures as less severe than people already experiencing them.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…H4, self-rated mental health: Fourthly, we hypothesized that general distress will be associated with feeling of controlling the outbreak, perceived risk of COVID-19 contagion, number of protective actions taken, knowledge and worry/fear about COVID-19 [ 10 , 14 , 23 , 48 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceived efficacy of COVID-19 restrictions, reactions and their impact on mental health during the early phase of the outbreak in six countries

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The COVID-19 pandemic forced millions of people to drastically change their social life habits as governments employed harsh restrictions to reduce the spread of the virus. Although beneficial to physical health, the perception of physical distancing and related restrictions could impact mental health. In a pre-registered online survey, we assessed how effective a range of restrictions were perceived, how severely they affected daily life, general distress and paranoia during the early phase of the outbreak in Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Israel, Norway and USA. Most of our over 2000 respondents rated the restrictions as effective. School closings were perceived as having the strongest effect on daily life. Participants who believed their country reacted too mildly perceived the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 to be higher, were more worried and expressed reduced beliefs in the ability to control the outbreak. Relatedly, dissatisfaction with governmental reactions corresponded with increased distress levels. Together, we found that satisfaction with one's governmental reactions and fear appraisal play an important role in assessing the efficacy of restrictions during the pandemic and their related psychological outcomes. These findings inform policy-makers on the psychological factors that strengthen resilience and foster the well-being of citizens in times of global crisis.

show abstract

Measuring Realistic and Symbolic Threats of COVID-19 and their Unique Impacts on Wellbeing and Adherence to Public Health Behaviors

Cited by 39 publications

References 39 publications

The acceptance of Covid-19 tracking technologies: The role of perceived threat, lack of control, and ideological beliefs

The acceptance of Covid-19 tracking technologies: The role of perceived threat, lack of control, and ideological beliefs

Perceived efficacy of COVID-19 restrictions, reactions and their impact on mental health during the early phase of the outbreak in six countries

Perceived efficacy of COVID-19 restrictions, reactions and their impact on mental health during the early phase of the outbreak in six countries

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