Call them COVIDiots: Exploring the effects of aggressive communication style and psychological distance in the communication of COVID-19.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Chu H
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7862919 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:While different antecedents have been examined to explain peoples' reactions towards COVID-19, there is only scarce understanding about the role of the subjective closeness and distance to the pandemic. Within the current study, we applied the concept of psychological distance to understand the distance towards COVID-19 and investigated its (1) connection with preventive attitudes and proactive behaviors, (2) context-specific antecedents, and its (3) mediating effect of knowledge on attitudes. Using an online sample from a German quantitative cross-sectional study (N = 395, M = 32.2 years, SD = 13.9 years, 64.3% female) in July 2020, a time with a general low incidence of people infected with Sars-CoV2, we measured relevant socio-psychological constructs addressing COVID-19 and included further information from external sources. Based on a path model, we found geographical distance as a significant predictor of cognitive attitudes towards COVID-19. Furthermore, hypothetical distance (i.e., feeling to be likely affected by COVID-19) predicted not only participants' affective, cognitive, and behavioral attitudes, but also the installation of a corona warning-app. While several variables affected the different dimensions of psychological distance, hypothetical and geographical distance mediated the effect of knowledge on attitudes. These results underline the role of geographical and hypothetical distance for health-related behaviors and education. For example, people will only comply with preventive measures if they feel geographically concerned by the disease, which is particularly challenging for fast-spreading global diseases such as COVID-19. Therefore, there is a need to clearly communicate the personal risks of diseases and address peoples' hypothetical distance.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-021-02415-x.
| S-EPMC8557103 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundDuring COVID-19 pandemic, visits have been prohibited in most French ICUs. Psychological effects, for reference persons (RPs), of remote-only communication have been assessed.MethodsAll RPs of patients referred to ICU for COVID-19 were included. HADS, IES-R, and satisfaction were evaluated at admission, discharge/death, and 3 months. At 3 months, a psychologist provided a qualitative description of RPs' psychological distress.ResultsEighty-eight RPs were included. Prevalence of anxiety and depression was 83% and 73% respectively. At 3 months, lower HADS decrease was associated with patient death/continued hospitalization, and/or sleeping disorders in RPs (p < 0.01). Ninety-nine percent RPs felt the patient was safe (9 [7; 10]/10 points, Likert-type scale), confident with caregivers (10 [9; 10]/10 points), and satisfied with information provided (10 [9; 10]/10 points). All RPs stressed the specific-type of "responsibility" associated with being an RP in a remote-only context, leading RPs to develop narrow diffusion strategies (67%) and restrict the array of contacted relatives to a very few and/or only contacting them rarely. 10 RPs (30%) related the situation to a prior traumatic experience.ConclusionRPs experienced psychological distress and reported that being an RP in a remote-only communication context was a specific responsibility and qualified it as an overall negative experience.Trial registrationNCT04385121 . Registered 12 May 2020. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ .
| S-EPMC7794617 | biostudies-literature
Project description:To underpin the psychological factors for vaccination intention, we explored the variables related to positive and negative attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination in Taiwan. The data were collected via an online survey platform with a sample size of 1100 in April 2021. We found that people's interpretations of the origin of the virus were relevant. People who tended to believe that the virus was artificially created felt powerless and were more concerned about the possible side-effects of the vaccines, which was negatively associated with their vaccination intention. The source of vaccine recommendation was found to be relevant to vaccination intention. People's vaccination intention was highest if the vaccines were recommended by health professionals, followed by friends and the government, and then mainstream media and social media. The analysis of the demographic variables showed that men tended to be more receptive to vaccines than women. Our findings should provide insights into developing communication strategies to effectively promote vaccination intentions.
| S-EPMC8310074 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) that has caused the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic represents the greatest international biopsychosocial emergency the world has faced for a century, and psychological science has an integral role to offer in helping societies recover. The aim of this paper is to set out the shorter- and longer-term priorities for research in psychological science that will (a) frame the breadth and scope of potential contributions from across the discipline; (b) enable researchers to focus their resources on gaps in knowledge; and (c) help funders and policymakers make informed decisions about future research priorities in order to best meet the needs of societies as they emerge from the acute phase of the pandemic. The research priorities were informed by an expert panel convened by the British Psychological Society that reflects the breadth of the discipline; a wider advisory panel with international input; and a survey of 539 psychological scientists conducted early in May 2020. The most pressing need is to research the negative biopsychosocial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic to facilitate immediate and longer-term recovery, not only in relation to mental health, but also in relation to behaviour change and adherence, work, education, children and families, physical health and the brain, and social cohesion and connectedness. We call on psychological scientists to work collaboratively with other scientists and stakeholders, establish consortia, and develop innovative research methods while maintaining high-quality, open, and rigorous research standards.
| S-EPMC7404603 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundsWith the rapid spread of COVID-19, strict home confinement has been implemented in most parts of Chinese regions. Millions of people were not allowed to leave their homes except for special reasons. Home confinement plays an essential role in curbing pandemic and promoting preventive behaviors, but it may affect individuals' mental health as well.ObjectsThe objective of this study was to explore the psychological impacts of home confinement.Materials and methodsWe collected more than 150,360 Weibo messages from 5,370 Chinese active users, and then extracted psycho-linguistic features from these messages. Psycho-linguistic analysis was carried out using the 2 (confinement vs. non-confinement) × 2 (before vs. after confinement) repeated measure analysis of variance (RM ANOVA).ResultsThe results showed that the frequency of positive emotion words was remarkably decreased during home confinement [F (1,5368) = 7.926, p = 0.005, η2 = 0.001]. In high-endemic subgroup, home confinement also reduced the frequency of exclusion words [F (1,3445) = 4.518, p = 0.034, η2 = 0.001] and inhibition words [F (1,3445) = 10.154, p = 0.001, η2 = 0.003].ConclusionHome confinement caused a decline in the use of positive emotion words. This indicates that home confinement can increase the frequency of negative emotions. The changes of exclusion words and inhibition words in high-endemic areas may be related to the high epidemic threat and the urgent need for social distancing in these areas.
| S-EPMC8209261 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionUnderstanding how category width of cognitive style and power distance impact language use in cultures is crucial for improving cross-cultural communication. We attempt to reveal how English foreign language students, affected by high-context culture, communicate in English as a foreign language. What models of foreign communicative competence do they create?MethodsWe applied association rule analysis to find out how the category width of cognitive style affects the foreign communication competence in relation to culture and language.ResultsThe requester tends to be more formal and transfers conventional norms of the culture of the mother tongue into English, which mainly affects the use of alerters and external modifications of the head act of request.DiscussionA broad categorizer, regardless of social distance, prefers to formulate the request in a conditional over the present tense form, contrary to narrow categorizers who, in a situation of social proximity, prefer the request form in the present tense. A similar finding was shown in the case of external modifications of the head act, where we observed the inversion between broad and narrow categorizers, mainly in the use of minimizers and mitigating devices.
| S-EPMC10800717 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We aimed to explore psychological effects of the coronavirus pandemic on Hungarian adults in the time of the national quarantine situation in May 2020.We conducted a cross-sectional observational study with the use of an anonymous online questionnaire that consisted of 65 items. The following measuring instruments were used: Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10); The General Anxiety Disorder Assessment (GAD)-2; The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-2; European Quality of Life Visual Analogue Scale (EQ-VAS); Self-administered inventory of complaints (Hungarian questionnaire); Shortened (Hungarian) version of the Ways of Coping Questionnaire; 2 open-ended questions to examine the participants' mood and ways of coping during the pandemic. The data of 431 participants were analyzed, their average age was 47.53 ± 11.66 years, and the percentage of females was 90%. The mean of participants' scores were the following: 19.34 ± 7.97 for perceived stress, 73.05 ± 21.73 for health status, and 8.68 ± 4.65 for neurotic complaints. Thirty-four and one-tenth percent of participants were depressed, 36.2% were anxious, and they tended to use problem-focused coping strategies more frequently than emotion-focused ones. We found significant correlations between all of the seven examined psychological variables. Our results highlight the importance of stress management in the psychological support of healthy adults in quarantine situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
| S-EPMC7766563 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Aggressive treatment style, as defined by the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, has been implicated as an important factor contributing to excessively high medical expenditures. We aimed to determine the association between aggressive treatment style and surgical outcomes.Medicare admissions to 3,065 hospitals for general, orthopedic, and vascular surgery between 2000 and 2005 (N = 4,558,215 unique patients).A retrospective cohort analysis.For elderly surgical patients, aggressive treatment style was not associated with significantly increased complications, but it was associated with significantly reduced odds of mortality and failure-to-rescue. The odds ratio for complications in hospitals at the 75th percentile of aggressive treatment style compared with those at the 25th percentile (a U.S.$10,000 difference) was 1.01 (1.00-1.02), p<.066; whereas the odds of mortality was 0.94 (0.93-0.95), p<.0001; and for failure-to-rescue it was 0.93 (0.92-0.94), p<.0001. Analyses that used alternative measures of aggressiveness--hospital days and ICU days--yielded similar results, as did analyses using only low-variation procedures.Attempting to reduce aggressive care that is not cost effective is a laudable goal, but policy makers should be aware that there may be improved outcomes associated with patients undergoing surgery in hospitals with a more aggressive treatment style.
| S-EPMC3029844 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Given the flood of health-related information stirred up by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, it is important to understand the factors that influence people to engage in protective public health measures so that medical communication can be tailored to be effective. Following the idea that people have a general inclination toward health care utilization, which is either more passive (i.e., medical minimizer) or more aggressive (i.e., medical maximizer), we assess if this inclination extends to being more or less willing to engage in protective public health behavior. We investigate the effect of individual differences in medical minimizing and medical maximizing orientation on COVID-19-related protective behaviors and attitudes. We used the validated Medical Maximizer-Minimizer Scale (MMS) and surveyed a diverse opt-in sample of the Swedish population (n = 806). Our results show that the MMS significantly predicts a wide range of self-reported behaviors and attitudes in relation to COVID-19. Participants with a stronger minimization orientation were significantly less likely to practice social distancing, follow hygiene recommendations, and be supportive of strict COVID-19 policies. Participants with a stronger maximization orientation had a larger discrepancy between perceived own risk and others getting infected. Thus, they perceived themselves as being less at risk for getting infected compared to the average person. Our findings imply that the MMS can be effectively used to predict who is more or less reluctant to follow public health recommendations.JEL codes: D70 E71 I12 I18.
| S-EPMC9326342 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has led to psychological distress among community samples and university students. Some coping behaviors and cognitive appraisals allow individuals to experience positive psychological growth amid such a crisis (Folkman et al. 1986). In the event of continuing waves of COVID-19 infection and future viral outbreaks, understanding the relationships between coping behaviors, stress appraisals, and COVID-related distress and growth can empower public health officials and university leadership to mitigate negative consequences and encourage growth.Methods774 undergraduate students completed online self-report measures of coping (Brief COPE; emotion, problem, avoidant), stress appraisal (SAM; threat/centrality, challenge/self-efficacy, uncontrol, other-control), neuroticism (NEO-N), health anxiety (SHAI), and COVID-19 exposure/impact (C-PIQ; distress and growth). Hypotheses were examined via simple regressions and interactions.ResultsIncreased utilization of avoidant coping was associated with high levels of distress regardless of whether it was perceived as threatening or not. Emotion-focused and problem-focused coping strategies were associated with more growth, whereas avoidant coping was associated with less growth. Higher emotion-focused coping and challenge appraisal together predicted the most growth.LimitationsCross-sectional design precludes the tracking of distress and growth over time; this study relied on self-report data.ConclusionsThese results underscore the impact of stress appraisals on the mental health of students navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings may inform public health messaging-or have clinical implications, as successful interventions exist for improving coping strategies and stress appraisals.
| S-EPMC8830180 | biostudies-literature