COVIDiSTRESS Global Survey dataset on psychological and behavioural consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak

This N = 173,426 social science dataset was collected through the collaborative COVIDiSTRESS Global Survey - an open science effort to improve understanding of the human experiences of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic between 30th March and 30th May, 2020. The dataset allows a cross-cultural study of psychological and behavioural responses to the Coronavirus pandemic and associated government measures like cancellation of public functions and stay at home orders implemented in many countries. The dataset contains demographic background variables as well as measures of Asian Disease Problem, perceived stress (PSS-10), availability of social provisions (SPS-10), trust in various authorities, trust in governmental measures to contain the virus (OECD trust), personality traits (BFF-15), information behaviours, agreement with the level of government intervention, and compliance with preventive measures, along with a rich pool of exploratory variables and written experiences. A global consortium from 39 countries and regions worked together to build and translate a survey with variables of shared interests, and recruited participants in 47 languages and dialects. Raw plus cleaned data and dynamic visualizations are available.Measurement(s) psychological measurement center dot anxiety-related behavior trait center dot Stress center dot response to center dot Isolation center dot loneliness measurement center dot Emotional Distress Technology Type(s) Survey Factor Type(s) geographic location center dot language center dot age of participant center dot responses to the Coronavirus pandemic Sample Characteristic - Organism Homo sapiens Sample Characteristic - Location global Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data:Peer reviewe

Stress and worry in the 2020 coronavirus pandemic: Relationships to trust and compliance with preventive measures across 48 countries in the COVIDiSTRESS global survey

The COVIDiSTRESS global survey collects data on early human responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic from 173 429 respondents in 48 countries. The open science study was co-designed by an international consortium of researchers to investigate how psychological responses differ across countries and cultures, and how this has impacted behaviour, coping and trust in government efforts to slow the spread of the virus. Starting in March 2020, COVIDiSTRESS leveraged the convenience of unpaid online recruitment to generate public data. The objective of the present analysis is to understand relationships between psychological responses in the early months of global coronavirus restrictions and help understand how different government measures succeed or fail in changing public behaviour. There were variations between and within countries. Although Western Europeans registered as more concerned over COVID-19, more stressed, and having slightly more trust in the governments' efforts, there was no clear geographical pattern in compliance with behavioural measures. Detailed plots illustrating between-countries differences are provided. Using both traditional and Bayesian analyses, we found that individuals who worried about getting sick worked harder to protect themselves and others. However, concern about the coronavirus itself did not account for all of the variances in experienced stress during the early months of COVID-19 restrictions. More alarmingly, such stress was associated with less compliance. Further, those most concerned over the coronavirus trusted in government measures primarily where policies were strict. While concern over a disease is a source of mental distress, other factors including strictness of protective measures, social support and personal lockdown conditions must also be taken into consideration to fully appreciate the psychological impact of COVID-19 and to understand why some people fail to follow behavioural guidelines intended to protect themselves and others from infection. The Stage 1 manuscript associated with this submission received in-principle acceptance (IPA) on 18 May 2020. Following IPA, the accepted Stage 1 version of the manuscript was preregistered on the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/g2t3b. This preregistration was performed prior to data analysis

Stress and worry in the 2020 coronavirus pandemic : relationships to trust and compliance with preventive measures across 48 countries in the COVIDiSTRESS global survey

The COVIDiSTRESS global survey collects data on early human responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic from 173 429 respondents in 48 countries. The open science study was co-designed by an international consortium of researchers to investigate how psychological responses differ across countries and cultures, and how this has impacted behaviour, coping and trust in government efforts to slow the spread of the virus. Starting in March 2020, COVIDiSTRESS leveraged the convenience of unpaid online recruitment to generate public data. The objective of the present analysis is to understand relationships between psychological responses in the early months of global coronavirus restrictions and help understand how different government measures succeed or fail in changing public behaviour. There were variations between and within countries. Although Western Europeans registered as more concerned over COVID-19, more stressed, and having slightly more trust in the governments' efforts, there was no clear geographical pattern in compliance with behavioural measures. Detailed plots illustrating between-countries differences are provided. Using both traditional and Bayesian analyses, we found that individuals who worried about getting sick worked harder to protect themselves and others. However, concern about the coronavirus itself did not account for all of the variances in experienced stress during the early months of COVID-19 restrictions. More alarmingly, such stress was associated with less compliance. Further, those most concerned over the coronavirus trusted in government measures primarily where policies were strict. While concern over a disease is a source of mental distress, other factors including strictness of protective measures, social support and personal lockdown conditions must also be taken into consideration to fully appreciate the psychological impact of COVID-19 and to understand why some people fail to follow behavioural guidelines intended to protect themselves and others from infection. The Stage 1 manuscript associated with this submission received in-principle acceptance (IPA) on 18 May 2020. Following IPA, the accepted Stage 1 version of the manuscript was preregistered on the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/g2t3b. This preregistration was performed prior to data analysis.Peer reviewe

Sensing Foreign DNA: The Role of DNA-PKcs in Human Anti-viral Innate Immunity

Host cell pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) are a first line of defence against pathogens and function to generate a productive innate immune response. PRRs sense pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), such as viral genomic DNA, which is a major PAMP during DNA virus infection. Viral DNA sensing leads to the activation of the STING-TBK1-IRF3 signalling axis and the production of type I interferon. Previously, our work identified the non-homologous end-joining protein DNA-PKcs, part of the DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) complex, as an intracellular PRR for cytoplasmic viral DNA in murine cells. After screening several human cell lines, we established a robust system to dissect the DNA sensing pathway in human fibroblasts. In these human cells DNA-PKcs was found to be essential for the production of type I interferon via the STING pathway in response to DNA and DNA virus infection and we found that the kinase activity of DNA-PKcs was not required for this response. Many DNA viruses evade the immune response by inhibiting the pathway. We make use of attenuated Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV- 1) and Vaccinia virus (VACV) that lack immunomodulatory proteins and drive type I interferon production. DNA-PKcs-/- cells have a defective immune response after infection with attenuated HSV and VACV. Furthermore, primary patient fibroblasts harbouring a mutation in DNA-PKcs showed a gain-of-function effect and an enhanced immune signaling to DNA and DNA virus infection. DNA-PKcs has also been linked to cell death during retrovirus integration although this has not been studied extensively. We carried out some preliminary work in this study, showing that DNA-PKcs-/- cells are more prone to cell death during HSV-1 infection and have reduced yields of virion production. This work demonstrates the role of DNA-PKcs as a viral DNA sensor in human cells and adds to the knowledge of the DNA sensing processes that are essential for anti-viral innate immunity.Cambridge Philosophical Societ

Sources of Embodied Creativity: Interactivity and Ideation in Contact Improvisation

Drawing on a micro-phenomenological paradigm, we discuss Contact Improvisation (CI), where dancers explore potentials of intercorporeal weight sharing, kinesthesia, touch, and momentum. Our aim is to typologically discuss creativity related skills and the rich spectrum of creative resources CI dancers use. This spectrum begins with relatively idea-driven creation and ends with interactivity-centered, fully emergent creation: (1) Ideation internal to the mind, the focus of traditional creativity research, is either restricted to semi-independent dancing or remains schematic and thus open to dynamic specification under the partner’s influence. (2) Most frequently, CI creativity occurs in tightly coupled behavior and is radically emergent. This means that interpersonal synergies emerge without anybody’s prior design or planned coordination. The creative feat is interpersonally “distributed” over cascades of cross-scaffolding. Our micro-genetic data validate notions from dynamic systems theory such as interpersonal self-organization, although we criticize the theory for failing to explain where precisely this leaves skilled intentionality on the individuals’ part. Our answer is that dancers produce a stream of momentary micro-intentions that say “yes, and”, or “no, but” to short-lived micro-affordances, which allows both individuals to skillfully continue, elaborate, tweak, or redirect the collective movement dynamics. Both dancers can invite emergence as part of their playful exploration, while simultaneously bringing to bear global constraints, such as dance scores, and guide the collective dynamics with a set of specialized skills we shall term emergence management

Snapchat Streaks: How Adolescents Metagame Gamification in Social Media

This paper presents strategies that Viennese adolescents use to uphold snap streaks – a gamified challenge on Snapchat inviting users to exchange at least one snap each 24 hours to keep the score. This gamification feature strongly impacts the communication practice of adolescents, both with regard to its temporality and its content. In order to secure the timed reciprocal exchange with their streak partner, adolescents would resort to so called streak snaps – impersonal pictures with reduced content that are sent solely for the purpose of upholding the streak. Three partially overlapping subcategories of streak snaps are outlined: mass snaps, “good morning” or “good night” snaps, and black pictures. Their main characteristics and role in perpetuating the gamified challenge on Snapchat are discussed with regard to reciprocity and metagaming. More specifically, the impact of these metagaming strategies on adolescents’ communication, as well as their relevance for social media design, is discussed in detail

The Social Media Game? How Gamification Shapes Our Social Media Engagement.

This chapter provides an overview of the gamification elements currently applied by three popular social media platforms: Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. Their gamified ele- ments are analysed within the framework of motivational psychology theories and persuasive design. The question is then addressed if through social media’s extensive use of gamifica- tion elements, it has been turning into a game. Finally, the ethical implications of gamification’s use are discussed. The focus thereby lies on social comparison, surveillance, the intransparent application of psychological models and the “obligation” to have fun

Viral interactions with non-homologous end-joining: a game of hide-and-seek.

There are extensive interactions between viruses and the host DNA damage response (DDR) machinery. The outcome of these interactions includes not only direct effects on viral nucleic acids and genome replication, but also the activation of host stress response signalling pathways that can have further, indirect effects on viral life cycles. The non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) pathway is responsible for the rapid and imprecise repair of DNA double-stranded breaks in the nucleus that would otherwise be highly toxic. Whilst directly repairing DNA, components of the NHEJ machinery, in particular the DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK), can activate a raft of downstream signalling events that activate antiviral, cell cycle checkpoint and apoptosis pathways. This combination of possible outcomes results in NHEJ being pro- or antiviral depending on the infection. In this review we will describe the broad range of interactions between NHEJ components and viruses and their consequences for both host and pathogen

Developing Gaming Instinctual Motivation Scale (GIMS): item development and pre-testing

The 6-11 Framework (Dillon R., On the way to fun: An emotion-based approach to successful game design, 2010) explains game playing experience using emotion and motivation. Specifically, game playing experience induces six emotions, including anger, fear, joy/happiness, pride, sadness, and excitement, and 11 core instinctual behavioral responses, including survival, self-identification, collecting, greed, protection/care/nurture, aggressiveness, revenge, competition, communication, exploration/curiosity, and color appreciation. The 6-11 Framework depicts game playing experience in a systematic way, useful for academicians and industry professionals. Nonetheless, it originated from simple empirical observations and lacked a proper means to measure the 11 motivations proposed in the model. Therefore, the first step to testing the model is to construct a questionnaire to quantify the 11 motivations. In this study, we constructed the Gaming Instinctual Motivation Scale and conducted a pilot test with a sample of 20 participants. The data showed that the scale had high internal consistency regardless of the game genres, indicating that the scale items were measuring the same construct even when applied in various game genres. The questionnaire could be used in future studies that intend to apply the components proposed in the 6-11 Framework and to test gaming motivations in general. Also, the questionnaire may be useful for industry professionals in predicting the possible motivations of game play

Password policies vs. usability: when do users go "bananas"?

To grant password security, it is still a common practice to request users to comply with a number of rules that need to be met for the resulting password to be valid. Users have no option but to comply with the rules, but is there a specific point where the required rules start being perceived as a nuisance and thus jeopardize security? This paper addresses users’ reactions to such a scenario by means of an online survey (N=51) where users are being asked to create a password following an increasing number of restrictions. We thereby follow their evolving responses as each further criterion is added. Our analysis confirms that the increase in rule complexity has detrimental effects on usability and can lead to workarounds potentially compromising password security