Social Distancing and Shopping Behaviour: The Role of Anxiety, Attention, and Awareness on Safety Preferences while Queuing during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic increased global anxiety, and many people shopped less frequently. This study quantifies customer preferences in where to shop while following social distancing regulations, specifically focusing on customers' anxiety. Collecting data online from 450 UK participants, we measured trait anxiety, COVID-19 anxiety, queue awareness, and queue safety preferences. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to develop novel queue awareness and queue safety preference variables from new items. Path analyses tested the hypothesised relationships between them. Queue awareness and COVID-19 anxiety were positive predictors of queue safety preference, with queue awareness partially mediating the effect of COVID-19 anxiety. These results suggest that customers' preferences for shopping at one business and not another may depend on safe queueing and waiting conditions, especially in those more anxious about COVID-19 transmission. Interventions that target highly aware customers are suggested. Limitations are acknowledged and areas for future development are outlined.

Social Distancing and Shopping Behaviour: The Role of Anxiety, Attention, and Awareness on Safety Preferences while Queuing during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic increased global anxiety, and many people shopped less frequently. This study quantifies customer preferences in where to shop while following social distancing regulations, specifically focusing on customers' anxiety. Collecting data online from 450 UK participants, we measured trait anxiety, COVID-19 anxiety, queue awareness, and queue safety preferences. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to develop novel queue awareness and queue safety preference variables from new items. Path analyses tested the hypothesised relationships between them. Queue awareness and COVID-19 anxiety were positive predictors of queue safety preference, with queue awareness partially mediating the effect of COVID-19 anxiety. These results suggest that customers' preferences for shopping at one business and not another may depend on safe queueing and waiting conditions, especially in those more anxious about COVID-19 transmission. Interventions that target highly aware customers are suggested. Limitations are acknowledged and areas for future development are outlined.

COVID-19 vaccination: Conspiracy theories, demography, ideology, and personality disorders.

OBJECTIVES: To understand the role of personal experience, religious and political beliefs as well as conspiracy theory beliefs on the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination. METHOD: Just under 400 adults completed online questionnaires assessing to what extent they endorsed conspiracy theories (CTs) and an evidenced measure of personality disorders (PDs). One month later, they were asked about having the COVID-19 vaccine. We examined the relationship between demographic (age, sex, education), ideology (political and religious beliefs), general beliefs in CTs, PDs and attitudes toward vaccination. RESULTS: We found, as anticipated, conservative political orientation, religiosity, Cluster A PDs, and conspiracy thinking correlated negatively with vaccine acceptance. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the group of vaccine accepting individuals differed from the group of individuals either hesitant or resistant to the vaccine with respect to education, personal ideology, general conspiracy theory adherence, and cluster A PDs. Multinomial logistic regression indicates that religiosity, conspiracy thinking, and lower levels of education predict vaccine hesitancy or rejection. CONCLUSION: Implications for "rolling out" the vaccine are discussed in terms of who to target and how to address misbeliefs about vaccination. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Consensual ideas for prioritizing patients: correlates of preferences in the allocation of medical resources

Five hundred adults indicated their preferences about the fairness and ethics of allocating scarce medical interventions. They also completed an IQ test, a measure of self-esteem and the extent to which they believed in a Just World, as well as General Conspiracy Theories. Results confirmed previous studies which showed a strong preference for the Utilitarian "saves most lives," followed by the Prioritization "sickest first" and "youngest first," preferences. Correlations and regressions indicated relatively few significant individual difference correlates of allocation preferences, with IQ being the major exception. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Self-compassion mediates the relationship between COVID-19-related stress and body image disturbance: Evidence from the United Kingdom under lockdown.

The ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and attendant lockdown mandates may have detrimental effects on body image outcomes, which in turn highlights the importance of identifying protective factors. Here, we examined associations between COVID-19-related stress and body image disturbance, as well as the potential mediating and moderating role of self-compassion. During the third lockdown in the United Kingdom, we asked an online sample of adults (N = 600) to complete measures of COVID-19-related stress, body image disturbance, and self-compassion. Mediation analysis showed that higher COVID-19-related stress was significantly associated with greater body image disturbance, and that this relationship was mediated by self-compassion. In contrast, self-compassion did not significantly moderate the effects of stress on body image disturbance. These results suggest that promoting greater self-compassion may be a viable means of mitigating adverse outcomes from the COVID-19 pandemic on body image disturbance.

Dark- and bright-side reactions to government advice about Covid-19, and a test of a method to moderate such reactions.

The aim of this paper was to study how individual differences in personality shape reactions to authorities' health advice during the COVID-19 pandemic and how such reactions can be modified. Three studies, with between 249 and 407 participants, investigated this. Study 1 used a longitudinal design, and included measures of personality (NEO-FFI3, SCATI), political orientation, age and gender as predictors of reactions toward COVID-19 advice and regulations. Studies 2 and 3 were randomised experiments testing effects of principles for behaviour modification on such reactions. In study 1, we found that being female, older, or having liberal political views, as well as neuroticism, agreeableness and conscientiousness in the higher ranges, were associated with constructive reactions. Externalising personality disorders were related to opposite reactions. In study 2, we found that the experimental instructions had a significant positive impact on such reactions. These results were replicated in study 3. Implications and limitations are discussed.

COVID-19-related stress and anxiety are associated with negative body image in adults from the United Kingdom.

The stress and anxiety caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic presents a serious threat to psychological well-being in populations worldwide and may also extend to body image outcomes. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a preliminary study in which an online sample of adults from the United Kingdom (N = 506, age M = 34.25 years) were asked to complete measures of perceived stress, stressful life events, trait anxiety, COVID-19-related stress and anxiety, and negative body image (body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness in women, body fat and muscularity dissatisfaction in men). The results of hierarchical regressions indicated that COVID-19-related stress and anxiety explained significant incremental variance in body image outcomes (Adj. ΔR 2 = .02 to .10), over-and-above demographics (age and body mass index) and perceived stress, trait anxiety, and stressful life events. These findings suggest that COVID-19-related stress and anxiety may shape body image outcomes under conditions of physical and social distancing.

Preferences for scarce medical resource allocation: Differences between experts and the general public and implications for the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study concerns what lay people believe is the best way to allocate scarce medical resources. A sample of 515 individuals completed a short questionnaire asking them to rank-order eight different ethical positions with respect to the allocation of scarce resources. They showed a strong preference for the 'saves most lives' and 'sickest first' options, with 'reciprocity' and a 'lottery' being least favoured. There was a reasonable degree of unanimity amongst respondents and comparatively few correlations with individual difference factors such as demography. The preference results are compared to expert recommendations (Emanuel et al., 2020, N. Engl. J. Med., 382, 2049) made in light of the current coronavirus pandemic, and differences are highlighted. Implications for scare medical resource allocations are discussed, and limitations of the study acknowledged.