Misbehaving in the Corona crisis: The role of anxiety and unfounded beliefs.
Nikola ErcegMitja RužojčićZvonimir GalićPublished in: Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) (2020)
The aim of our study was to explore psychological determinants of COVID-19 responsible behavior. We focused on trait anxiety and worry about the corona crisis, knowledge and unfounded beliefs about coronavirus and thinking dispositions (cognitive reflection, actively open-minded thinking, faith in intuition and science curiosity) that should drive knowledge and beliefs. Additionally, we tested the effectiveness of a one-shot intervention based on the "consider counter-arguments" debiasing technique in changing COVID-19 unfounded beliefs. We used a convenience sample of 1439 participants who filled in the questionnaire on-line. Comparison of latent means showed that the "consider counter-arguments" intervention did not affect unfounded beliefs. Structural equation model, conducted on 962 participants with data on all variables, indicated that greater worry and weaker endorsement of COVID-19 unfounded beliefs lead to more responsible COVID-19 behavior. The relationship of trait anxiety and thinking dispositions with the criterion was mediated through the worry about COVID-19 and unfounded beliefs about COVID-19, respectively.
Keyphrases
- sars cov
- coronavirus disease
- public health
- randomized controlled trial
- respiratory syndrome coronavirus
- healthcare
- sleep quality
- systematic review
- gene expression
- minimally invasive
- machine learning
- genome wide
- dna methylation
- physical activity
- deep learning
- depressive symptoms
- cross sectional
- big data
- artificial intelligence
- electronic health record
- psychometric properties