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 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 to 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 to 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 intentions 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

RecA4142 Causes SOS Constitutive Expression by Loading onto Reversed Replication Forks in Escherichia coli K-12 ▿

Escherichia coli initiates the SOS response when single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) produced by DNA damage is bound by RecA and forms a RecA-DNA filament. recA SOS constitutive [recA(Con)] mutants induce the SOS response in the absence of DNA damage. It has been proposed that recA(Con) mutants bind to ssDNA at replication forks, although the specific mechanism is unknown. Previously, it had been shown that recA4142(F217Y), a novel recA(Con) mutant, was dependent on RecBCD for its high SOS constitutive [SOS(Con)] expression. This was presumably because RecA4142 was loaded at a double-strand end (DSE) of DNA. Herein, it is shown that recA4142 SOS(Con) expression is additionally dependent on ruvAB (replication fork reversal [RFR] activity only) and recJ (5′→3′ exonuclease), xonA (3′→5′ exonuclease) and partially dependent on recQ (helicase). Lastly, sbcCD mutations (Mre11/Rad50 homolog) in recA4142 strains caused full SOS(Con) expression in an ruvAB-, recBCD-, recJ-, and xonA-independent manner. It is hypothesized that RuvAB catalyzes RFR, RecJ and XonA blunt the DSE (created by the RFR), and then RecBCD loads RecA4142 onto this end to produce SOS(Con) expression. In sbcCD mutants, RecA4142 can bind other DNA substrates by itself that are normally degraded by the SbcCD nuclease

Triflusal reduces cerebral ischemia induced inflammation in a combined mouse model of Alzheimer's disease and stroke

Clinical data has shown that stroke exacerbates dementia in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. Previous work, combining ratmodels ofADand stroke have shown that neuroinflammationmay be the common mediator between AD and stroke toxicity. This study examined the effects of triflusal (2-acetoxy-4-trifluoromethylbenzoic acid) in APP23 transgenicmice receiving strokes. Six month-old APP23 mice over-expressing mutant human amyloid precursor protein (APP) were used to model AD in this study. Unilateral injections of a potent vasoconstrictor, endothelin-1, into the striatumwere used tomimic small lacunar infarcts. Immunohistochemical analysis was performed to examine AD-like pathology and inflammatory correlates of stroke and AD. APP23 mice showed increases in AD-like pathology and inflammatorymarkers of AD in the cortex and hippocampus. Endothelin-induced ischemia triggered an inflammatory response along with increases in AD pathologicalmarkers in the region of the infarct. Triflusal reduced inflammation surrounding the endothelin-induced infarct only.At thedoseused,anti-inflammatory treatment may be beneficial in reducing the AD and inflammatory correlates of stroke in a combined ADstroke mouse model.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

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

Correction to: Nature Human Behaviour https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01173-x, published online 2 August 2021. In the version of this article initially published, the following authors were omitted from the author list and the Author contributionssection for “investigation” and “writing and editing”: Nandor Hajdu (Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest,Hungary), Jordane Boudesseul (Facultad de Psicología, Instituto de Investigación Científica, Universidad de Lima, Lima, Perú), RafałMuda (Faculty of Economics, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Lublin, Poland) and Sandersan Onie (Black Dog Institute, UNSWSydney, Sydney, Australia & Emotional Health for All Foundation, Jakarta, Indonesia). In addition, Saeideh FatahModares’ name wasoriginally misspelled as Saiedeh FatahModarres in the author list. Further, affiliations have been corrected for Maria Terskova (NationalResearch University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia), Susana Ruiz Fernandez (FOM University of Applied Sciences,Essen; Leibniz-Institut fur Wissensmedien, Tubingen, and LEAD Research Network, Eberhard Karls University, Tubingen, Germany),Hendrik Godbersen (FOM University of Applied Sciences, Essen, Germany), Gulnaz Anjum (Department of Psychology, Simon FraserUniversity, Burnaby, Canada, and Department of Economics & Social Sciences, Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, Pakistan)

In COVID-19 Health Messaging, Loss Framing Increases Anxiety with Little-to-No Concomitant Benefits: Experimental Evidence from 84 Countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic (and its aftermath) highlights a critical need to communicate health information effectively to the global public. Given that subtle differences in information framing can have meaningful effects on behavior, behavioral science research highlights a pressing question: Is it more effective to frame COVID-19 health messages in terms of potential losses (e.g., "If you do not practice these steps, you can endanger yourself and others") or potential gains (e.g., "If you practice these steps, you can protect yourself and others")? Collecting data in 48 languages from 15,929 participants in 84 countries, we experimentally tested the effects of message framing on COVID-19-related judgments, intentions, and feelings. Loss- (vs. gain-) framed messages increased self-reported anxiety among participants cross-nationally with little-to-no impact on policy attitudes, behavioral intentions, or information seeking relevant to pandemic risks. These results were consistent across 84 countries, three variations of the message framing wording, and 560 data processing and analytic choices. Thus, results provide an empirical answer to a global communication question and highlight the emotional toll of loss-framed messages. Critically, this work demonstrates the importance of considering unintended affective consequences when evaluating nudge-style interventions