The role of values in coping with health and economic threats of COVID-19

Conspiring under threats! An investigation of associations between COVID-19 health and economic threats and conspiracy beliefs in Italy and Argentina

Theory and research suggest that threats aroused by a given crisis lead to conspiracy beliefs. Although crises involve the arise of multiple threats (e.g., economic, safety, etc.) diversely affecting various needs and outcomes (i.e., cognition, emotion and behaviour), no research has yet focused on specific relations that different threats may have with the endorsement of conspiracy beliefs. In this study, we distinguished between health and economic threats aroused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and we tested their associations with conspiracy beliefs. Findings from two correlational studies conducted in Italy and Argentina showed that while COVID-19's economic threat was positively and consistently related to conspiracy beliefs, the relationship between COVID-19's health threat and conspiracy beliefs was negative and significant in the Italian sample and non-significant in the Argentinian sample. Results are discussed within the context of the effects of multiple threats elicited by crises on conspiracy beliefs.

Analytic and heuristic process for prudent antimicrobial use in animals: What are triggers and how do they work?

The over and misuse of antimicrobials in animal agriculture causes a prevailing crisis for humans, animals, and the environment. From the One Health approach perspective, the formation process of adopting prudent antimicrobial use (AMU), once established, can be used to mitigate this crisis. The study aimed to determine the analytic-based and heuristic-based process that evoked prudent AMU among animal farmers by synthesis of stimulus-organism-response framework and dual-system theory and to explore gender differences on risk-benefit trade-offs. A structural equation model was employed to test the proposed hypotheses with field survey data from 1100 small-scale farmers. The results reveal that for the analytic-based process, social influence, antimicrobial-related threats, and self-efficacy are all salient stimuli having indirect effects on intention via the two organisms of perceived risks and perceived benefits. For heuristic-based process, farmers' altruistic value orientations are positively associated with intention. An interesting fact is that threat awareness has two opposite effects on intention, namely, the suppression effect and the enhancement effect. Moreover, the negative effect of perceived risks on intention is greater among female farmers, compared to male counterparts. These findings provide valuable insights for the forming of theory-based intervention strategies to perfect China's national action plan.

Intentions to be Vaccinated Against COVID-19: The Role of Prosociality and Conspiracy Beliefs across 20 Countries

Understanding the determinants of COVID-19 vaccine uptake is important to inform policy decisions and plan vaccination campaigns. The aims of this research were to: (1) explore the individual- and country-level determinants of intentions to be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, and (2) examine worldwide variation in vaccination intentions. This cross-sectional online survey was conducted during the first wave of the pandemic, involving 6697 respondents across 20 countries. Results showed that 72.9% of participants reported positive intentions to be vaccinated against COVID-19, whereas 16.8% were undecided, and 10.3% reported they would not be vaccinated. At the individual level, prosociality was a significant positive predictor of vaccination intentions, whereas generic beliefs in conspiracy theories and religiosity were negative predictors. Country-level determinants, including cultural dimensions of individualism/collectivism and power distance, were not significant predictors of vaccination intentions. Altogether, this study identifies individual-level predictors that are common across multiple countries, provides further evidence on the importance of combating conspiracy theories, involving religious institutions in vaccination campaigns, and stimulating prosocial motives to encourage vaccine uptake.

Correlates of COVID-19 Preventative Behaviors before and after Vaccination Availability

As the COVID-19 pandemic progressed, various preventative behaviors and eventually vaccinations became available to decrease the spread of the virus. The current study examined a variety of variables (i.e., age, COVID-19-related economic hardship, interpersonal concern, personality, fear of COVID-19, normative beliefs, political beliefs, and vaccine hesitancy) to better understand predictors of preventative behaviors and vaccination status at different points throughout the pandemic. Online questionnaires, administered through Qualtrics, were used to collect data using two convenience samples. One was a small sample (N = 44) of non-student participants before the vaccine was readily available. The other sample (N = 274) included college student participants and occurred after the vaccine had been available to all participants. Results suggest that several variables (i.e., fear of COVID-19, normative beliefs, interpersonal concern, and openness) were consistent predictors of public health behaviors at both points in time and across differently aged samples. Other variables (i.e., agreeableness, extraversion, conscientiousness, and economic hardship) were less consistent with their relationships with public health behaviors. Implications related to both research and public health are discussed.

Does threat trigger prosociality? The relation between basic individual values, threat appraisals, and prosocial helping intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic

Prosociality is often considered as quintessential in coping with the threats of health emergencies. As previous research has suggested, prosocial behaviors are shaped by both dispositional factors and situational cues about the helping situation. In the present research, we investigated whether "bonding" types of prosociality, helping directed towards close others within one's social network, and "bridging" types of prosociality, helping directed towards vulnerable people across group boundaries, are predicted by basic individual values and threat appraisals concerning COVID-19. During the pandemic, we conducted a cross-sectional study in the US and India (Ntotal = 954), using the Schwartz value inventory and a multifaceted measure of threat assessment to predict prosocial helping intentions. After controlling for other value and threat facets, self-transcendence values and threat for vulnerable groups uniquely predicted both bonding and bridging types of prosociality. Furthermore, threat for vulnerable groups partially mediated the effect of self-transcendence on prosocial helping intentions: People who endorsed self-transcendent values were particularly concerned by the effect of the pandemic on vulnerable groups, and thus willing to engage in prosocial behaviours to help those in need. Our findings support the idea that prosociality is stimulated by empathic concerns towards others in need and underline the importance for future research to consider the broad spectrum of threats appraised by people during health emergencies.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-023-04829-1.

Pandemic and prejudice: Revisiting Bogardus’s social distance concept in a time of COVID-19

This study examined when the realistic threat of COVID-19 leads to prejudicial social distancing. American participants reported social distancing preferences from Chinese or Italian people (out-group target) after viewing increasing or decreasing COVID-19 case numbers (threat level) in China or Italy (threat relevance). On the Bogardus Social Distance Scale, there was support for a disease avoidance hypothesis: greater social distancing preferences were expressed under higher than under lower relevant threats. Responses on a bespoke COVID-19 Social Distance Scale, however, supported an a priori prejudice hypothesis: greater social distancing preferences were expressed toward a Chinese than toward an Italian out-group. Moreover, responses on a separate bespoke Modern Social Distance Scale supported a complex prejudice hypothesis: greater social distancing preferences were expressed toward Chinese than toward Italian out-groups under higher than under lower threat, regardless of threat relevance. These findings suggest that the threat of COVID-19 may enable prejudice expression accompanied by the rationale of disease avoidance.

Fighting inequalities in times of pandemic: The role of politicized identities and interdependent self-construal in coping with economic threat

During the COVID-19 pandemic, institutions encouraged social isolation and non-interaction with other people to prevent contagion. Still, the response to an impending economic crisis must be through the collective organization. In this set of pre-registered studies, we analyse two possible mechanisms of coping with collective economic threats: shared social identity and interdependent self-construction. We conducted three correlational studies during the pandemic in May-October 2020 (Study 1, N = 363; Study 2, N = 250; Study 3, N = 416). Results show that shared identity at two levels of politicization (i.e., working-class and 99% identities) and interdependent self-construal mediated the relationship between collective economic threat, intolerance towards economic inequality and collective actions to reduce it. The results highlight that the collective economic threat can reinforce the sense of community-either through the activation of a politicized collective identity, such as the working class or the 99% or through the activation of an interdependent self-which in turn can trigger greater involvement in the fight against economic inequality. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.