Patriotism, nationalism, and evaluations of the government's handling of the coronavirus crisis.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by a global rise of nationalism, and many countries' responses to the pandemic have further intensified nationalist sentiments. The public is polarized over government policies toward the pandemic. Hence, this study examined the associations of patriotism and nationalism with the support for lockdown policies and evaluations of governmental performance. Methods: We recruited 180 participants from one Chinese university. Results: Patriotism and nationalism had a direct effect on evaluations of governmental performance. Patriotism also had indirect effects on favorable evaluations of governmental performance through the support of lockdown policies. In addition, this study examined the relationship of threat perception and evaluations of governmental performance in the pandemic. Discussion: This relationship was found to be insignificant; however, the interaction effects between threat perception and patriotism on evaluations of governmental performance were significant. The implications of the study results are discussed.

Stay Mindful and Carry on: Mindfulness Neutralizes COVID-19 Stressors on Work Engagement via Sleep Duration.

We examine whether mindfulness can neutralize the negative impact of COVID-19 stressors on employees' sleep duration and work engagement. In Study 1, we conducted a field experiment in Wuhan, China during the lockdown between February 20, 2020, and March 2, 2020, in which we induced state mindfulness by randomly assigning participants to either a daily mindfulness practice or a daily mind-wandering practice. Results showed that the sleep duration of participants in the mindfulness condition, compared with the control condition, was less impacted by COVID-19 stressors (i.e., the increase of infections in the community). In Study 2, in a 10-day daily diary study in the United Kingdom between June 8, 2020, and June 19, 2020, we replicate our results from Study 1 using a subjective measure of COVID-19 stressors and a daily measure of state mindfulness. In addition, we find that mindfulness buffers the negative effect of COVID-19 stressors on work engagement mediated by sleep duration. As the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing and the number of reported cases continues to rise globally, our findings suggest that mindfulness is an evidence-based practice that can effectively neutralize the negative effect of COVID-19 stressors on sleep and work outcomes. The findings of the present study contribute to the employee stress and well-being literature as well as the emerging organizational research on mindfulness.