Collective Reactions to Epidemic Threat: Attachment and Cultural Orientations Predict Early COVID-19 Infection and Mortality Rates and Trajectories

Hypotheses on culture-level attachment and individualism/collectivism relationships with COVID-19 infection and death rates during a period at the beginning of the epidemic were tested in data from 53 countries and 50 U.S. states. Results from multilevel growth curve analyses showed group-average anxious attachment predicted a lower initial number of cases and deaths cross-culturally and in the United States, while avoidant attachment predicted a higher initial number of COVID-19 infections in the United States and a higher initial number of deaths in both studies. Yet, during this period, culture-level anxious attachment was associated with a higher growth rate of infections and deaths, while a lower growth rate of infections and deaths was observed in countries and U.S. states with higher individualism and avoidance. The research provides new insights into attachment and culture relationships and points to different mechanisms that may explain initial and growth rate trajectories at the beginning of the epidemic.

Interpersonal distancing preferences, touch behaviors to strangers, and country-level early dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 spread.

The recent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to "social distancing" recommendations from public health organizations, as physical closeness bears the risk of person-to-person Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission. Here, it was explored if interpersonal distance preferences and touch behaviors in 41 countries were valid measures of physical distancing in contacts between strangers and whether they related to country-level variation in early dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 spread. The analysis, based on aggregated data from more than 9,000 participants, showed that variation in early dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 spread (i.e., total number of SARS-CoV-2 cases 20 days after the 100th case) was significantly and positively related to nonaffective touch behaviors between strangers, and significantly and negatively related to the preferred interpersonal distance between strangers. These findings suggest that the two measures are suitable for monitoring the extent to which recommendations on physical distance are implemented at the country-level in the context of COVID 19 outbreak. Further, they confirm that "physical distancing" is related to the dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic. It seems that an adaptation of social behaviors-that is, strict physical distancing from strangers-may result in a lower SARS-CoV-2 transmission rate. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

I Need a Doctor, Call Me a Doctor: Attachment and the Evaluation of General Practitioners before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Attachment is a system of threat regulation, and insecure (anxious and avoidant) attachment orientations are important individual difference antecedents to the cognitive and affective attributions of trait inferences. However, little is known about how threat-related contexts, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, influence attachment-related socio-cognitive schemas. Using an experimental research design across two independent samples of 330 (pre-onset of COVID-19) and 233 (post-onset of COVID-19) participants, we tested whether attachment orientations influenced general practitioner (GP) ratings and selection differently pre- and post-onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that during the COVID-19 pandemic, when presented with only negative information signals, avoidant individuals attributed positive ratings to GPs, with differing ratings as the number of positive signals increased. Differences between pre- and post-onset of the COVID-19 pandemic were less pronounced with regards to positive signals. We discuss these results in line with signal detection theory (SDT) and provide practical implications in response to our findings.