In COVID-19 Health Messaging, Loss Framing Increases Anxiety with Little-to-No Concomitant Benefits: Experimental Evidence from 84 Countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic (and its aftermath) highlights a critical need to communicate health information effectively to the global public. Given that subtle differences in information framing can have meaningful effects on behavior, behavioral science research highlights a pressing question: Is it more effective to frame COVID-19 health messages in terms of potential losses (e.g., "If you do not practice these steps, you can endanger yourself and others") or potential gains (e.g., "If you practice these steps, you can protect yourself and others")? Collecting data in 48 languages from 15,929 participants in 84 countries, we experimentally tested the effects of message framing on COVID-19-related judgments, intentions, and feelings. Loss- (vs. gain-) framed messages increased self-reported anxiety among participants cross-nationally with little-to-no impact on policy attitudes, behavioral intentions, or information seeking relevant to pandemic risks. These results were consistent across 84 countries, three variations of the message framing wording, and 560 data processing and analytic choices. Thus, results provide an empirical answer to a global communication question and highlight the emotional toll of loss-framed messages. Critically, this work demonstrates the importance of considering unintended affective consequences when evaluating nudge-style interventions.

Psychological well-being, risk factors, and coping strategies with social isolation and new challenges in times of adversity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: COVID-19 triggers anxiety and fear due to several reasons, and thus, dealing with it requires prolonged coping mechanisms. When the number of infections soared, to slow the spread, many governments decided to close universities and dormitories and move teaching to online platforms. The majority of the university students decided to move back home to their parents changing their social lives. Here, we aimed to point to risk, as well as protective factors, and understand the influence of these factors on both physical and psychological indicators of well-being. Further, to discover how university students cope with maintaining their social lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHOD: We collected online survey data from multiple university sources. Participants (N = 605) completed measures of emotion regulation strategies, knowledge on the disease, contamination fear, perceived social support, worrying and intolerance of uncertainty, quality of sleep, well-being, emotional stability, anxiety, and depression. RESULTS: Our results showed that the most prominent risk and protective factors that were most strongly associated with the indicators of well-being were rumination, catastrophizing, positive refocusing, and social support from family; respectively. CONCLUSION: These results have implications for professionals working with and helping (e.g., as counselors) people during the challenges of an emergency.

Psychological well-being and coping strategies of elderly people during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary.

OBJECTIVE: During COVID-19 lockdown the enforced social isolation and other pandemic-related changes highly increased the risk of mental health problems. We aimed to discover how elderly people coped with the psychological burdens of pandemic and the social isolation in Hungary. METHODS: This study included 589 (441 females) Hungarian individuals, aged 60-83 (M = 68.1, SD = 4.46). We collected online survey data to reach a wide population of elderly. Results of hierarchical linear modelling and structural equation modelling (SEM) analyses established how the current life-changing circumstances, the intolerance of uncertainty, loneliness and social support influence the mental health (e.g. depression, anxiety, well-being) of the elderly. The model was used to explore how adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies mediated the effects. RESULTS: Findings showed that perceived change in mood, social connectedness, and quality of life was negatively affected by catastrophizing and loneliness; whereas positive refocusing and contamination fear had a positive effect. According to the SEM analysis, intolerance of uncertainty and loneliness directly affected mental health. Further, maladaptive emotion regulation strategies mediated the connection between intolerance of uncertainty, contamination fear, loneliness and mental health. Whereas adaptive emotion regulation strategy mediated the connection between social support from friends, contamination fear, loneliness and mental health. CONCLUSION: Overall, our research might help the understanding of how external and internal factors contributed to the well-being of elderly people during the COVID-19. The model can also be translated into professional interventions to develop coping strategies among elderly for the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic in their lives.

On the Nature of Fear and Anxiety Triggered by COVID-19.

Emergencies that occur during natural disasters, such as avalanches, earthquakes, and floods, tend to be sudden, unexpected, and ephemeral and recruit defensive responses, similar to the ones recruited when faced with dangerous animals. Defensive behaviors are triggered by activity in survival circuits that detects imminent threats and fear is the conscious emotion of that follows immediately. But this particular threat (COVID-19) is useable and mysterious, triggering anxieties much more than fear. We conducted a literature search on May 1, 2020 in Google Scholar, PsychInfo, and PubMed with search terms related to COVID-19 fears and found 28 relevant articles. We categorized the papers into six groups based on the content and implications: fear of the unknown, social isolation, hypochondriasis, disgust, information-driven fears, and compliance. Considering the nature of fear and anxiety, combined with the characteristics of the present COVID-19 situation, we contemplate that physicians and other health care workers of several specialties, as well as police officers, fire-fighters, and rescue personnel, and first responders might be more able to deal with COVID-19 if they have (a) some tolerance of the unknown, (b) low illness anxiety disorder, (c) tolerance to social isolation; (d) low levels of disgust sensitivity; (e) be granted financial support, (f) have priority if needed medical assistance (g) use caution relatively to the COVID-19 media coverage and (h) be trained to have high levels of efficacy. Possibilities for preventive and therapeutic interventions that can help both health care personnel and the general population are also discussed.