The influence of gain-loss framing and its interaction with political ideology on social distancing and mask wearing compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused millions of cases and over half a million deaths in the United States. While health experts urge citizens to adopt preventative measures such as social distancing and wearing a mask, these recommended behaviors are not always followed by the public. To find a way to promote preventative measures, the present study examined the role of gain-loss framing of COVID-19 related messages on social distancing and mask wearing compliance. Moreover, the study also tested potential moderating effects on framing with three individual characteristics: political ideology, subjective numeracy, and risk attitude. A sample of 375 U.S. adult residents were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Each participant read either a gain or loss-framed message related to practicing protective behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants also completed scales of preventative behaviors, risk attitude, subjective numeracy, political ideology, and other demographic variables. It was found that those who were more liberal, risk-averse and had greater subjective numeracy were more likely to wear a mask and/or follow social distancing. Furthermore, in the presence of demographic and psychological factors, the study found participants in the loss-framed condition than in the gain-framed condition were more likely to adopt both preventative measures, supporting the notion of loss aversion. Additionally, the framing effect was also moderated by political ideology on mask-wearing, with the effect being stronger in liberals than in conservatives. Collectively, the study implies message framing may be a useful means to promote preventative measures in the current pandemic.

Impact of negative emotions on financial behavior: An assessment through general strain theory

Research background: The research has two objectives and employs a serial mediation approach. First, using the general strain theory, it examines the mediating role of negative feelings and impact of economic adversity on people's risk tolerance and prudent financial behavior. The second is determining the various categories' variations according to age. Purpose of the article: The study's main objective is to evaluate financial behaviour of people with lower and medium incomes after the second wave of COVID-19 in India, and to contribute to the body of knowledge on general strain theory. Methods: The study examined the proposed framework and tested the serial mediation model based on the general strain theory used as a survey method for data collection, targeting lower and middle-income individuals in India's most populated state. The study applied PLS-SEM to test the framed hypotheses. Furthermore, the Kruskal Wallis test was applied to identify the difference in the various groups classified based on age. Findings & value added: The results reveal that economic hardship significantly influences improved financial behavior. Risk aversion attitude, loneliness, and depression mediate the relationship between economic hardship and financial behavior. Moreover, the study found quite a few significant differences between the different age groups. The present study will add to the existing literature on financial behavior under the scope of general strain theory and probably be among the few that test general strain theory with financial variables impact on lower and middle-income group individuals from a developing nation in post-COVID-19 period.

Understand Delegates Risk Attitudes and Behaviour: The Moderating Effect of Trust in COVID-19 Vaccination.

The continuing COVID-19 pandemic has prompted many people to receive the needed vaccines. However, how trust in vaccination affects the attitude and behavior of delegates attending a convention in Macau has yet to be determined. Accordingly, we applied quantitative method in conducting a survey involving 514 participants and analysed the data using AMOS and SPSS. The results showed that trust in vaccines has a significant impact on moderating the relationship between risk attitude and satisfaction. Trust in vaccines has a significant positive effect on involvement. Risk attitude negatively affects involvement, satisfaction, and loyalty. The major contribution of this research is the introduction of a model based on trust in vaccination. To boost delegates' confidence to attend convention activities, governments and organizations should deliver accurate information on vaccines and pandemic risks, and that delegates should obtain accurate information about it. Lastly, unbiased and professional operators of the MICE industry also can offer precise COVID-19 vaccination information to reduce misperception and increase the security.

Glass half-full? A comprehensive PLS-SEM approach to explore the pandemic's effect on wine tourism intentions

Purpose: This study aims to provide a comprehensive overview on positive drivers and negative factors connected to the Covid-19 pandemic which can jointly shape wine tourism intentions. Design/methodology/approach: The present study relies on a large sample of 399 US wine tourists. Partial least square structural equation modelling is adopted for data analysis. Findings: Results reveal that willingness to avoid Covid risk while travelling negatively impacts wine tourism intentions and competitively mediates the effect of Covid phobia. Both situational and personal involvement with wine are key antecedents of future wine tourism intentions. Research limitations/implications: This research contributes to understand the role of willingness to avoid travel-related risks during health crises. Furthermore, it improves existing knowledge on the effect of wine involvement on wine tourism intentions, highlighting the predictive relevance of situational involvement in explaining this relationship. Practical implications: Results constitute critical information to practitioners and destination management operators for improving their resilience under similar circumstances. Updated information on wine tourists' profile is also provided. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is among the first studies exploring how positive and negative drivers act synergically in affecting wine tourism intentions after the Covid-19 outbreak. © 2023, Giulia Gastaldello, Nadia Streletskaya and Luca Rossetto.

What Affects Perceived Health Risk Attitude During the Pandemic: Evidence From Migration and Dining Behavior in China

The COVID-19 pandemic changed behaviors, at least temporarily, and possibly more permanently, with implications for both work and leisure activities. Some of those behavioral changes, such as dining in restaurants, have significant ripple effects on businesses and employment. We investigate the response to health risks in China with a study of decisions about eating out during the pandemic. We find that compared to a traditional measure of financial risk attitude, dining out behavior better captures individuals' attitude toward the health risk posed by the pandemic and is more significant in predicting their expected total consumption during the recovery phase of the pandemic. In addition, we find that the effect of domestic in-migration is positive with respect to dining out, a signifier of confidence in the government response to the safety of internal flows. In contrast, international migration and port city of entry status are strongly negative with respect to dining out. The risk from the virus is perceived to be much stronger in such contexts. From a policy perspective establishing border controls was critical in re-creating a robust economy. Additional city and household level characteristics that affect dining-out behavior are also identified. © The Author(s) 2022.

Risk Perception of COVID-19 as a Cause of Minority Ethnic Community Tourism Practitioners' Willingness to Change Livelihood Strategies: A Case Study in Gansu Based on Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory.

This study based on the cognitive-experiential self-theory, with risk attitude as the mediator and livelihood capacity as the moderator, explores the mechanism of the effect of risk perception of COVID-19 on minority ethnic community tourism practitioners' willingness to change livelihood strategies. Taking 423 tourism practitioners from five minority ethnic tourism communities as the objects of investigation in Gansu Province, China. This paper empirically tests the theoretical model by using Amos and SPSS. The results indicated the following: Risk perception of COVID-19 has a significant positive impact on the willingness of minority ethnic community tourism practitioners to change their livelihood strategies. Risk attitude partially mediated the relationship between risk perception of COVID-19 and willingness to change livelihood strategies. Livelihood capacity negatively moderated the relationship between risk perception of COVID-19 and willingness of minority ethnic community tourism practitioners to change their livelihood strategies. Livelihood capacity also negatively moderated the mediation effect of the relationship between risk perception of COVID-19 and willingness to change livelihood strategies. Based on the research conclusions, it provides theoretical guidance and practical enlightenment for minority ethnic community tourism practitioners on how to improve the stability and sustainability of their livelihoods through the adjustment and transformation of livelihood strategies in the post-epidemic era.

Social preferences before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in China

This study compares Chinese people’s trust and trustworthiness, risk attitude, and time preference before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in China. We compare the preferences of subjects in two online experiments with samples drawn from 31 provinces across mainland China before and after the onset of the pandemic. We test two competing hypotheses regarding trust and trustworthiness. On the one hand, the outbreak as a collective threat could enhance in-group cohesion and cooperation and thus increase trust and trustworthiness. On the other hand, to the extent that people expect their future income to decline, they may become more self-protective and self-controlled, and thus less trusting and trustworthy and more risk averse and patient. Comparing before and after the onset, we found that the subjects increased in trustworthiness. After the onset, trust and trustworthiness (and risk aversion and present bias too) were positively correlated with the COVID-19 prevalence rate in the provinces. Subjects with more pessimistic expectations about income change showed more risk aversion and lower discount rates, supporting the speculation concerning self-control.

Determinants of Adoption and Rejection of Protective Measures During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study in Germany’s Second Wave

The adoption and acceptance of protective measures are crucial for containing the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. In a recent article in this journal, Dohle et al. (https://doi.org/10.32872/spb.4315) investigated the influence of risk perceptions and trust in politics and science on those constructs in March/April 2020. Since then, the pandemic has undergone several dynamic changes. We analyzed longitudinal data (N = 800) to investigate whether trust and risk were relevant predictors for pandemic measures at a later stage (October 2020/January 2021). The concept of risk perception was supplemented by risk attitude and affective risk to produce a more comprehensive picture of the risk component. We found that greater trust in science at time point 1 predicted less rejection and more adoption of measures at time point 2. Moreover, trust in politics predicted less rejection of measures. From all aspects of cognitive risk perception, only higher severity predicted lower rejection. All other cognitive aspects were non-significant. However, affective risk was shown to be a major predictor: the more the coronavirus was perceived as frightening and worrisome, the lower the rejection and more frequent the adoption of measures. Also, the higher the risk attitude related to health topics, the less frequent the implementation of measures. We replicated the analysis with predictors from time point 2 and deviations are discussed. Our results indicate that affective risk and general attitude toward health risk are more predictive of taking up measures in the context of COVID-19 than cognitive risk. © Authors 2021.

Effects of Cognitive Dissonance Activation Emerged from Not Imposing Lockdown Restrictions on COVID-19-related Attitudes and Preventive Actions Considering the Role of Gender

Background: During the pandemic of COVID-19, some countries imposed lockdown restrictions on their cities to stop the outbreak of the virus. However, this mandatory lockdown was not imposed by all countries. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the induced-compliance situation generated by not imposing the lockdown restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals’ COVID-19 perceived risk and practicing the World Health Organization preventive actions, considering the moderating role of gender. Methods: The research was conducted through a causal-comparative method. Participants were 320 social media users who were randomly selected to complete the justification of COVID-19 perceived risk and COVID-19 preventive action implementation questionnaires. Instruments’ validity and reliability were confirmed through confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach alpha. Results: The analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed significant interactive effects of gender and work attendance on the justification of COVID-19 perceived risk so that the highest rate of justification was applied by males who were required to attend their workplace physically. The ANOVA results showed the significant main effects of gender and work attendance on the action. Based on these findings, the lowest rate of preventive actions belonged to males and those who attended their workplace physically. Conclusions: It is concluded that not imposing the lockdown restrictions, other than its direct role in increasing social contacts and the probability of virus spread, also lowers preventive actions implementation. This could happen due to belief modification to eliminate the undesirable state of cognitive dissonance that emerged from the induced-compliance situations.

The influence of social capital on risk attitude toward COVID-19 amongst traditional undergraduates

This dissertation assesses the influence of the three types of social capital (bonding, bridging, and linking) on the risk attitude of traditional undergraduate students (under 25 years old who enroll directly from high school, attend full-time, and do not have major life and work responsibilities). The research is motivated by three research questions: (1) What is the risk attitude of traditional undergraduate students surveyed about COVID-19 (addicted, seeking, tolerant, averse, paranoid);(2) What are the social capital characteristics for traditional undergraduate respondents surveyed;and (3) What influence does social capital have on the risk attitude of traditional undergraduate students regarding COVID-19? To examine these questions, the study engaged an online survey with five universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education and utilized chi-square tests and Spearman's rho correlations to assess the risk attitude/social capital relationship. Data showed that students with a high level of bonding and linking were more risk-averse while those with a high level of bridging were more risk seeking/ addicted. The study shows how emergency managers and risk communicators should develop their relationships with students and their networks to further engage them with disaster information or education informed by these insights. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

The Willingness to Pay for a Hypothetical Vaccine for the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

This study investigates how people in Japan perceived the severity of and probability of infection from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and how their willingness to purchase a hypothetical vaccine depends on these perceptions and their risk attitudes. We conducted a large-scale panel survey three times between 13 March to 13 April 2020 in Japan. By analyzing the data, we found that the perception of COVID-19 became more serious. The estimation of the fixed effect model reveals that a person becomes more willing to pay for a vaccine as the person evaluates COVID-19 as a more severe disease, considers a higher probability of infection, and becomes more risk averse. Since the sensitivity of willingness to pay for the vaccine on risk aversion increased during the period, the change in risk attitude contributed to an increase in willingness through the sensitivity channel, while it decreased through the magnitude channel.

Age differences in COVID-19 risk-taking, and the relationship with risk attitude and numerical ability.

This study aimed to investigate age differences in risk-taking concerning the coronavirus pandemic, while disentangling the contribution of risk attitude, objective risk and numeracy. We tested (i) whether older and younger adults differed in taking coronavirus-related health risks, (ii) whether there are age differences in coronavirus risk, risk attitude and numerical ability and (iii) whether these age differences in coronavirus risk, attitude and numerical ability are related to coronavirus risk-taking. The study was observational, with measures presented to all participants in random order. A sample of 469 participants reported their coronavirus-related risk-taking behaviour, objective risk, risk attitude towards health and safety risks, numerical ability and risk perception. Our findings show that age was significantly related to coronavirus risk-taking, with younger adults taking more risk, and that this was partially mediated by higher numeracy, but not objective risk or risk attitude. Exploratory analyses suggest that risk perception for self and others partially mediated age differences in coronavirus risk-taking. The findings of this study may better our understanding of why age groups differ in their adoption of protective behaviours during a pandemic and contribute to the debate whether age differences in risk-taking occur due to decline in abilities or changes in risk attitude.

Individual differences in social distancing and mask-wearing in the pandemic of COVID-19: The role of need for cognition, self-control and risk attitude.

In the United States, while the number of COVID-19 cases continue to increase, the practice of social distancing and mask-wearing have been controversial and even politicized. The present study examined the role of psychological traits in social distancing compliance and mask-wearing behavior and attitude. A sample of 233 U.S. adult residents were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants completed scales of social distancing compliance, mask-wearing behavior and attitude, need for cognition, self-control, risk attitude, and political ideology. Epidemiological information (seven-day positive rate and the number of cases per 100,000) was obtained based on the state participants resided in. As a result, epidemiological information did not correlate with social distancing compliance mask-wearing. Political ideology, on the other hand, was a significant factor, with a more liberal tendency being associated with greater engagement in social distancing compliance and mask-wearing behavior an attitude. Importantly, those who were more risk averse, or had a higher level of self-control or need for cognition practiced more social distancing and mask-wearing, after controlling for demographics, epidemiological information, and political ideology. Furthermore, for mask-wearing behavior, political ideology interacted with both need for cognition and self-control. Collectively, the study revealed the psychological roots of individual differences in social distancing and mask-wearing compliance.

Investor attention on COVID-19 and African stock returns.

We examine the financial consequences of rising global investor attention or risk attitude related to the COVID-19 pandemic for African stock markets. Using daily investor attention indices, which are based on global COVD-19-related google search queries, and stock return indices for 14 African stock markets, we show that investor attention is an important determinant of stock returns. Our estimates suggest that an increase in investor attention consistently reduces stock returns in three stock markets, namely Botswana, Nigeria, and Zambia. In contrast, an increase in investor attention may enhance stock returns in Ghana and Tanzania. Our estimates imply that, in uncertain times like the current pandemic, stock markets like those of Ghana and Tanzania may offer potential diversification benefits to investors. We demonstrate that our estimates are broadly robust using a composite measure of investor attention.•We built a direct and unambiguous measure of investor attention or risk attitude related to the COVID-19 pandemic.•In an exponential generalised autoregressive heteroskedasticity of order one (i.e. EGARCH(1,1)) framework, we regressed stock returns on their first lags, investor attention, exchange rate returns, and commodity returns, and controlled for investor attention in the variance equation.

Travel Anxiety, Risk Attitude and Travel Intentions towards "Travel Bubble" Destinations in Hong Kong: Effect of the Fear of COVID-19.

The impacts of COVID-19 are massive. Global tourism is one of the industries that is heavily affected. "Travel bubble", a recent term initiated by travel operators, is a programme that allows tourists to travel to countries nearby without quarantine requirements. This study investigates the relationship amongst fear of COVID-19, travel anxiety, risk attitude and travel intention towards "travel bubble" destinations. Results show that fear of COVID-19, travel anxiety and risk attitude negatively impact travel intention. Furthermore, travel anxiety and risk attitude moderate the indirect impacts between fear of COVID-19 and travel intention. Future research and implications of practices are presented.