Changes in death fear during COVID-19 in Hubei, China: The effects of life-history and current external environment

The outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and the spread of deadly virus globally compels individuals to reevaluate death and dying, and this forced awareness of death influences adaptation to a changing environment. Several studies have employed artificial laboratory settings of mortality salience or subliminal death primes to increase mortality awareness and mortality threat perception. However, few studies have used natural settings to activate a larger ecological network of perceived mortality threats. To understand such natural environment conditions under which individuals feel most fearful for their safety and lives, the goal of this study is to examine whether changes in overall fear of death varied according to individual distinctions in life history (LH) strategy and current environmental status under the COVID-19 pandemic. Residents of Hubei, China (N = 202) reported their fear of death subject scores once during and once after the mandatory lockdown period. The results revealed that LH was associated with fear of death, and the current environment moderated this association, suggesting that slow LH strategy was predictive of more intense death fear at lower levels of mortality threat in a given environment than at higher levels of this threat. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) Impact Statement In the present study, we compared individual differences in life-history behavioral and cognitive profiles in influencing death fear during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. We explored the moderating role of environmental unpredictability in the relationship between fear of death and LH during and after compulsory lockdown. This study employed natural environments to activate a more comprehensive network of death-related concepts as the global spread of the virus progresses. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Disease Prevalence and Fatality, Life History Strategies, and Behavioral Control of the COVID Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic caught the world by surprise and raised many questions. One of the questions is whether infectious diseases indeed drive fast life history (LH) as the extent research suggests. This paper challenges this assumption and raises a different perspective. We argue that infectious diseases enact either slower or faster LH strategies and the related disease control behavior depending on disease severity. We tested and supported the theorization based on a sample of 662 adult residents drawn from all 32 provinces and administrative regions of mainland China. The findings help to broaden LH perspectives and to better understand unusual social phenomena arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Slow Life History Strategies and Increases in Externalizing and Internalizing Problems During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic is but one of many instances of environmental adversities that have recurred in human history. Biobehavioral resource allocation strategies, known as fast (reproduction-focused) versus slow (development-focused) life history (LH) tradeoff strategies, evolved to deal with environmental challenges such as infectious diseases. Based on 141 young people and their mothers observed prior to (ages 9 and 13) and during (age 20) COVID-19, we investigated longitudinal relations involving slow LH strategies. The results support the adaptive role of slow LH strategies in reducing COVID-related increases in externalizing problems. In addition, the effect of early adversity on COVID-related increases in externalizing was mediated, and the effect on COVID-related increases in internalizing was moderated, by slow LH strategies.

Disease History and Life History Predict Behavioral Control of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

It is puzzling why countries do not all implement stringent behavioral control measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 even though preventive behaviors have been proven to be the only effective means to stop the pandemic. We provide a novel evolutionary life history explanation whereby pathogenic and parasitic prevalence represents intrinsic rather than extrinsic mortality risk that drives slower life history strategies and the related disease control motivation in all animals but especially humans. Our theory was tested and supported based on publicly available data involving over 150 countries. Countries having a higher historical prevalence of infectious diseases are found to adopt slower life history strategies that are related to prompter COVID-19 containment actions by the government and greater compliance by the population. Findings could afford governments novel insight into the design of more effective COVID-19 strategies that are based on enhancing a sense of control, vigilance, and compliance in the general population.

Debate: Facing uncertainty with(out) a sense of control - cultural influence on adolescents' response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought about healthcare, economic, and psychological crises around the world. The psychological impact on adolescents is likely going to be uneven across different societies, as cultures vary in terms of their dominant learning style that may influence how people cope with uncertainty and perceive their sense of control. We postulate that for adolescents in individualistic cultures where individual learning prevails, their sense of control might be undermined by societal disease-control regulations that restrict personal freedoms, while adolescents' sense of control might increase via participating in societal preventive efforts in collectivistic cultures where social learning is more prevalent. Individual differences regarding one's sense of control would, in turn, have implications for adolescents' short-term adjustments to COVID-19-related challenges and their future development.