A global experiment on motivating social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Finding communication strategies that effectively motivate social distancing continues to be a global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-country, preregistered experiment (n = 25,718 from 89 countries) tested hypotheses concerning generalizable positive and negative outcomes of social distancing messages that promoted personal agency and reflective choices (i.e., an autonomy-supportive message) or were restrictive and shaming (i.e., a controlling message) compared with no message at all. Results partially supported experimental hypotheses in that the controlling message increased controlled motivation (a poorly internalized form of motivation relying on shame, guilt, and fear of social consequences) relative to no message. On the other hand, the autonomy-supportive message lowered feelings of defiance compared with the controlling message, but the controlling message did not differ from receiving no message at all. Unexpectedly, messages did not influence autonomous motivation (a highly internalized form of motivation relying on one’s core values) or behavioral intentions. Results supported hypothesized associations between people’s existing autonomous and controlled motivations and self-reported behavioral intentions to engage in social distancing. Controlled motivation was associated with more defiance and less long-term behavioral intention to engage in social distancing, whereas autonomous motivation was associated with less defiance and more short- and long-term intentions to social distance. Overall, this work highlights the potential harm of using shaming and pressuring language in public health communication, with implications for the current and future global health challenges

A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about a situation. Participants from 87 countries and regions (n = 21,644) were randomly assigned to one of two brief reappraisal interventions (reconstrual or repurposing) or one of two control conditions (active or passive). Results revealed that both reappraisal interventions (vesus both control conditions) consistently reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions across different measures. Reconstrual and repurposing interventions had similar effects. Importantly, planned exploratory analyses indicated that reappraisal interventions did not reduce intentions to practice preventive health behaviours. The findings demonstrate the viability of creating scalable, low-cost interventions for use around the world

List of transcripts studied and summary of previous and current results.

<p>Transcripts are annotated with reference that first identified regulation by long-term sensitization or serotonin treatment. Accession numbers are to refseq records for each transcript. Prior results columns summarize previous findings of regulation after long-term sensitization training either early (0-1 hours after training) or late (24 hours after training). ↑ represents up-regulation, “none” represents no regulation, and?? represents time point not tested. Current Results columns presents data from this manuscript for the VC cluster. *Sensorin has not previously been tested in a behavioral context but shows delayed up-regulation after serotonin treatment in cultured sensory neurons <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0114481#pone.0114481-Schacher1" target="_blank">[43]</a>.</p><p>List of transcripts studied and summary of previous and current results.</p

Microdissection of the VC cluster captures most sensorin mRNA in the pleural ganglia.

<p>VC clusters were microdissected from the pleural ganglia and expression of sensorin was measured in the VC cluster and the remaining pleural ganglia (rPl). A) Sensorin expression in rPl (squares) and VC cluster (circles) for animals harvested 1 hour after training (<i>n</i> = 7, samples from both left and right side of each animal shown). Sensorin expression is normalized to levels of H4, a housekeeping gene unaltered by long-term sensitization training. B) Fold difference in sensorin expression from VC cluster to its corresponding rPl. The bar represents the mean fold difference and the error bar represents the 95% confidence interval of the mean.</p

Changes in transcription 24 hours after long-term sensitization training.

<p>Shown is raw data, means, and adjusted 95% confidence intervals for each transcript measured 24 hours after long-term sensitization training. Samples were harvested from 2 CNS loci: A) the VC cluster (<i>n</i> = 12) and B) the pedal ganglia (<i>n</i> = 8). Only transcripts significantly up-regulated in the VC cluster were tested in the pedal ganglia, producing some empty columns in panel B. ApC/EBP was undetectable in the VC cluster of 5 samples, so only the remaining 7 samples are presented here. * indicates significant regulation at <i>p</i> <0.05 with Benjamini-Hochberg correction for multiple comparisons for all measurements presented in this figure. Confidence intervals are also expanded for multiple comparisons to maintain an overall false-discovery rate of 0.05.</p

Long-term sensitization training produces a long-lasting but unilateral increase in T-SWR duration.

<p>Shown is the T-SWR duration (in seconds) before (baseline, circles) and 24 hours after (squares) long-term sensitization on the trained (left) and untrained sides (<i>n</i> = 12 animals). T-SWR durations are similar at baseline for trained and untrained sides. Every animal shows an increase in T-SWR on the trained side following training (positive slopes from baseline to 24 hour measures).</p