Mediation Analysis of Conspiratorial Thinking and Anti-Expert Sentiments on Vaccine Willingness

Objective: Vaccines are an effective means to reduce the spread of diseases, but they are sometimes met with hesitancy that needs to be understood.Methods: In this study, we analysed data from a large, cross-country survey conducted between June and August 2021 in 43 countries (N = 15,740) to investigate the roles of trust in government and science in shaping vaccine attitudes and willingness to be vaccinated. Results: We found that, despite significant variability between countries, both forms of institutional trust were associated with a higher willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Further, we found that conspiratorial thinking and anti-expert sentiments predicted reduced trust in government and science, respectively, and that trust mediated the relationship between these beliefs and ultimate vaccine attitudes. Although most countries displayed similar relationships between conspiratorial thinking and anti-expert sentiments, trust, and vaccine attitudes, we identified three countries (Brazil, Honduras, and Russia) with significantly differing effects of these variables. Conclusions: We discuss and propose various additional local factors that future research should consider to understand how trust and attitudes towards governmental and scientific institutions may shape individuals’ ultimate vaccine attitudes and decisions

Mediation analysis of conspiratorial thinking and anti-expert sentiments on vaccine willingness

Objective: Vaccines are an effective means to reduce the spread of diseases, but they are sometimes met with hesitancy that needs to be understood. Method: In this study, we analyzed data from a large, cross-country survey conducted between June and August 2021 in 43 countries (N = 15,740) to investigate the roles of trust in government and science in shaping vaccine attitudes and willingness to be vaccinated. Results: Despite significant variability between countries, we found that both forms of institutional trust were associated with a higher willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Furthermore, we found that conspiratorial thinking and anti-expert sentiments predicted reduced trust in government and science, respectively, and that trust mediated the relationship between these two constructs and ultimate vaccine attitudes. Although most countries displayed similar relationships between conspiratorial thinking and anti-expert sentiments, trust in government and science, and vaccine attitudes, we identified three countries (Brazil, Honduras, and Russia) that demonstrated significantly altered associations between the examined variables in terms of significant random slopes. Conclusions: Cross-country differences suggest that local governments’ support for COVID-19 prevention policies can influence populations’ vaccine attitudes. These findings provide insight for policymakers to develop interventions aiming to increase trust in the institutions involved in the vaccination process

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.Peer reviewe

Dark Triad traits and proactive and reactive aggression within the social emotional information processing model in young adults

Celem przeprowadzonych badań było znalezienie związków pomiędzy cechami „Ciemnej Triady” (czyli subklinicznym narcyzmem w dwóch jego formach: wielkościowym i wrażliwym, a także subkliniczną psychopatią i makiawelizmem) a agresją proaktywną oraz reaktywną (zarówno relacyjną jak i ogólną/jawną) osób we wczesnej dorosłości, biorąc przy tym pod uwagę pośredniczącą rolę mechanizów modelu społeczno-emocjonalnego przetwarzania informacji (social emotional information processing model, SEIP). Model SEIP jest rozszerzeniem modelu SIP stosowanego w badaniach nad agresją dziecięcą i zakłada, że zachowania agresywne wynikają ze skłonności do tendencyjnego przetwarzania informacji społecznych. Należą do nich m.in. stosowanie wrogich atrybucji (tj. przypisywanie innym wrogich intencji), dokonywanie pozytywnej oceny samej reakcji agresywnej oraz samego siebie w tej reakcji, czy też posiadanie wyższych oczekiwań dotyczących jej efektów. Dodatkowo model zwraca uwagę na rolę negatywnego pobudzenia emocjonalnego w sytuacji agresogennej. Badania podzielone zostały na etap przygotowawczy i właściwy. Na etap przygotowawczy składają się adaptacje dwóch narzędzi: Kwestionariusza Agresji Relacyjnej (KAR) oraz zestawu przetłumaczonych na język polski winiet SEIP-Q. Wykorzystano następujące kwestionariusze w polskich adaptacjach/wersjach językowych: NPI-13 do pomiaru narcyzmu wielkościowego, HSNS do pomiaru narcyzmu wrażliwego, LSRP do pomiaru psychopatii, MACH IV do pomiaru makiawelizmu, zestaw winiet SEIP-Q do pomiaru mechanizmów modelu społeczno-emocjonalnego przetwarzania informacji, RPQ-A do pomiaru ogólnej agresji proaktywnej i reaktywnej, oraz KAR do pomiaru romantycznej, proaktywnej i reaktywnej agresji relacyjnej. Wyniki wskazały na ważną rolę dokonywanych wrogich atrybucji oraz doświadczanych w wyniku prowokacji negatywnych reakcji emocjonalnych w powstawaniu reakcji o charakterze agresywnym, oraz na umiarkowaną rolę zmiennych związanych z poznawczą oceną samych reakcji

Konteksty szkolno-wychowawcze w badaniach nad agresją werbalną i agresywnymi formami humoru

W artykule zaprezentowano przegląd wybranych badań nad agresją werbalną i agresywnymi formami humoru obserwowanymi w środowiskach wychowawczych i edukacyjnych. Badania te uwzględniają akty agresji słownej dokonywane w klasie szkolnej i na uniwersytecie, zarówno przez uczniów, jak i nauczycieli. Szczególną uwagę poświęcono rzadko wykorzystywanemu w psychologii interpersonalnemu modelowi agresywności werbalnej (Infante, Wigley, 1986), a także typologii stylów humoru, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem agresywnego poczucia humoru (Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray, Weir, 2003). Artykuł ma także na celu wykazanie, że zjawiska humoru dyskredytującego, wrogiego oraz agresywnego stylu poczucia humoru stanowią uzupełnienie szerokiego repertuaru zachowań uznawanych za werbalnie agresywne i powinny być uwzględniane w badaniach nad agresją o charakterze werbalnym, zwłaszcza w kontekście takich zjawisk jak bullying. W zakończeniu podjęto próbę określenia praktycznych implikacji wynikających z zaprezentowanego przeglądu, jak również wskazania możliwych kierunków dalszych badań w tym zakresie

Traditionally identified women are amused with sexist jokes about men through benevolent but not hostile sexism

In two preregistered studies, we examined the links between women’s gender identity and their amusement with sexist (both hostile and benevolent) jokes targeted at men. In Study 1 (n = 531), we hypothesized that the interaction between the strength and contents of women’s gender identity would be associated with their amusement with jokes targeted at men and that this relationship would be mediated by their endorsement of hostile and benevolent sexism targeted at men. Although our results provided no support for the predicted interaction, we found positive associations between women’s traditional identity contents and higher amusement with both benevolent and hostile jokes about men, explained by their higher endorsement of benevolent (but not hostile) sexism toward men. This effect was fully replicated in Study 2 (n = 148), suggesting that women’s enjoyment of disparaging and non-disparaging jokes targeting men is primarily driven by the internalization of more traditional models of sex roles and men-women interdependence

The interplay of strength and content of women’s gender identity, ambivalent sexism targeted at men, and attitudes toward gender role subtypes

In this on-line study of adult women (N = 145), we performed a series of moderation analyses, including women's self-reported gender in-group identification as moderator, their traditional/progressive identity contents as predictors, ambivalent sexism targeted at men and attitudes toward male and female conforming and non-conforming gender roles as outcome variables. We found that both traditional and progressive identity contents were significant predictors of benevolent sexism but did not predict hostile sexism toward men. Moreover, traditional identity contents predicted more negative evaluations of both male and female gender non-conforming roles, while progressive identity contents predicted more positive evaluations of both male and female gender non-conforming roles. The results have also indicated that the less a woman identifies with her gender in-group while having highly traditional identity contents, the lower she evaluates gender non-conforming roles of other women. The present study adds to the existing research on the links between women's gender identity and perceptions of the opposite sex, as well as their evaluations of various gender roles of men and women

The Influence of Depression on Biased Diagnosis of Premenstrual Syndrome and Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder by the PSST Inventory

The diagnosis of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) poses a challenge for clinicians due to the overdiagnosis of retrospective methods and overlapping symptoms with depression. The present study utilized an Item Response Theory analysis to examine the predictive utility of the Premenstrual Symptom Screening Tool (PSST) in women with and without depression. Two hundred and fifteen women aged 20–35 completed the PSST, a daily symptom calendar, SCID-I, and CES-D for two consecutive menstrual cycles. PSST items: fatigue, depressed mood, feeling overwhelmed, anxiety/tension, and decreased interest in everyday activities were the best predictors of PMS. Unlike the daily symptom ratings, the PSST over-diagnosed PMS/PMDD in the depressed group but not in the group of women without PMS/PMDD. While diagnosing premenstrual disorders, clinicians should be aware that a retrospective diagnosis with PSST can be more sensitive to mood disorders and cycle phases than a prospective diagnosis with a daily symptoms calendar