Should I Help? Prosocial Behaviour during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Unveiling the Mechanisms through Which Leader Integrity Shapes Ethical Leadership Behavior: Theory of Planned Behavior Perspective

Leadership integrity is crucial in shaping ethical leadership or promoting a rigorous adherence to moral principles and standards. This study explores the intricate relationship between leader integrity, moral identification, self-regulation, and ethical leadership behavior, providing practical insights for healthcare leaders seeking to enhance ethical practices. It addresses a critical gap in the research landscape by focusing on individual-level ethical leadership within the healthcare sector, where prior investigations have been limited. This study examines the mediating role of moral identification among leader integrity and ethical leadership behavior. We surveyed 181 health sector workers and employed SmartPLS to assess the conceptualized relationships. The analyses reveal a significant indirect influence of leader integrity on ethical leadership behavior, whereas moral identification mediates the relationship. Our findings further indicate an intriguing moderation effect of self-regulation on the relationship between moral identification and ethical leadership behavior. This divergence from previous research underscores the significance of contextual and methodological factors in studying leadership integrity and ethical behavior. Our study contributes to the literature on the relationship through planned behavior theory by demonstrating that moral identification mediates the relationship between leader integrity and ethical leadership behavior in the context of the theory of planned behavior. Our findings underscore the significance of fostering leader integrity within organizations to indirectly promote ethical leadership behaviors through moral identification. Organizations should prioritize initiatives that cultivate moral identification among their members to enhance ethical cultures.

Social connectedness and resilience post COVID-19 pandemic: Buffering against trauma, stress, and psychosis

The present study investigated psychosocial predictors of psychosis-risk, depression, anxiety, and stress in Croatia two years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the existing transgenerational war trauma and associated psychiatric consequences in Croatian population, a significant pandemic-related deterioration of mental health was expected. Recent studies suggest that after an initial increase in psychiatric disorders during the pandemic in Croatia, depression, stress, and anxiety rapidly declined. These findings highlight the role of social connectedness and resilience in the face of the global pandemic. We examined resilience and psychiatric disorder risk in 377 Croatian adults using an anonymous online mental health survey. Results indicate that there was an exacerbation of all mental ill health variables, including depression, anxiety, stress, and a doubled risk for psychosis outcome post-COVID pandemic. Stress decreased levels of resilience, however, those exposed to previous traumatic experience and greater social connectedness had higher resilience levels. These findings suggest that individual differences in underlying stress sensitization of Croatian population due to past trauma may continue to influence mental health consequences two years after COVID-19 pandemic. It is essential to promote the importance of social connectedness and resilience in preventing the development of variety of mental health disorders.

l-DOPA and oxytocin influence the neurocomputational mechanisms of self-benefitting and prosocial reinforcement learning

Humans learn through reinforcement, particularly when outcomes are unexpected. Recent research suggests similar mechanisms drive how we learn to benefit other people, that is, how we learn to be prosocial. Yet the neurochemical mechanisms underlying such prosocial computations remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated whether pharmacological manipulation of oxytocin and dopamine influence the neurocomputational mechanisms underlying self-benefitting and prosocial reinforcement learning. Using a double-blind placebo-controlled cross-over design, we administered intranasal oxytocin (24 IU), dopamine precursor l-DOPA (100 mg + 25 mg carbidopa), or placebo over three sessions. Participants performed a probabilistic reinforcement learning task with potential rewards for themselves, another participant, or no one, during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Computational models of reinforcement learning were used to calculate prediction errors (PEs) and learning rates. Participants behavior was best explained by a model with different learning rates for each recipient, but these were unaffected by either drug. On the neural level, however, both drugs blunted PE signaling in the ventral striatum and led to negative signaling of PEs in the anterior mid-cingulate cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, inferior parietal gyrus, and precentral gyrus, compared to placebo, and regardless of recipient. Oxytocin (versus placebo) administration was additionally associated with opposing tracking of self-benefitting versus prosocial PEs in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, insula and superior temporal gyrus. These findings suggest that both l-DOPA and oxytocin induce a context-independent shift from positive towards negative tracking of PEs during learning. Moreover, oxytocin may have opposing effects on PE signaling when learning to benefit oneself versus another.