How Does COVID-19 Risk Perception Affect Sense of Control? The Roles of Death Anxiety and Confucian Coping.

This research examined the impact of COVID-19 risk perception on sense of control, testing the hypotheses that COVID-19 risk perception would reduce sense of control and that this effect would be mediated by death anxiety and moderated by Confucian coping. A series of six studies were conducted with Chinese participants (N = 2202) and employed different research designs in lab and real-life settings. Across the studies, we found that the perceived risk of COVID-19 impaired sense of control. Studies 3a to 5 further revealed that death anxiety mediated the adverse effect of COVID-19 risk perception on sense of control, and Studies 4 to 5 revealed that Confucian coping strategies alleviated the adverse effect of COVID-19 risk perception on sense of control. These findings shed new light on the psychological impact of risk perception in times of crisis and identify mitigating factors and boundary conditions.

Does Cyberostracism Reduce Prosocial Behaviors? The Protective Role of Psychological Resilience.

To reduce the negative consequences of cyberostracism on prosocial behaviors, we developed a coping strategy based on psychological resilience, and revealed its effectiveness in combating the adverse effects of cyberostracism on prosocial behavior through two studies. Study 1 demonstrated that psychological resilience could mitigate the negative impact of cyberostracism on prosocial behaviors through experimental manipulation. By targeting continuously ostracized people with low resilience for an online self-help resilience intervention program, Study 2 confirmed that psychological resilience was effective in alleviating the detrimental effects of cyberostracism. These studies not only help us to recognize the negative effects of cyberostracism, but also extend Williams' temporal need-threat model of ostracism in the context of online ostracism. As emerging technologies represent a promising new approach to intervention delivery, the most valuable contribution of this study is that we developed an online self-help psychological resilience intervention program that showed encouraging therapeutic effects and advantages for assisting in caring for a larger population of people who are at elevated risk for being cyberostracized.

Low Altruism as a Cause of Ostracism.

This study focused on the causes of ostracism and explored the relationship between altruistic personality traits and ostracism. Using a combination of questionnaire surveys and laboratory experiments, results showed that: individuals with lower altruism were more vulnerable to be ostracized than those with higher altruism (Study 1 and Study 2). The relationship between altruism and ostracism was partially mediated by social responsibility (Study 3). When facing a low-altruistic target, the source would infer that the social responsibility level of this target was also low, thereby leading the ostracism intention to the target. Empathy did not moderate the relationship between altruism and ostracism. On the one hand, empathy did not moderate the direct effect of altruism on ostracism (Study 2); on the other hand, it also did not moderate the mediating role of social responsibility (Study 3). The strengths and limitations of this research are also discussed.

Air Pollution Reduces Interpersonal Trust: The Roles of Emotion and Emotional Susceptibility.

Air pollution has been shown to have detrimental effects on physical and mental health, yet little is known about how air pollution affects psychosocial functioning in everyday life. We conducted three studies that utilized experimental methods and web crawler technology to examine the effect of hazy environmental conditions on perceived interpersonal trust, and to investigate the roles of emotion and emotional susceptibility in mediating or moderating the negative impact of air pollution. In Study 1, participants were presented with landscape photos that showed either hazy scenes or clear scenes. Those who viewed photos of hazy scenes reduced their levels of interpersonal trust. In Study 2, emotion data were collected from social media with web crawler technology, in connection with meteorological monitoring data during the same period. Hazy conditions were associated with reduced expressions of positive emotion on social media, whereas clearer conditions were associated with enhanced positive emotional expressions. In Study 3, we simulated Weibo communications in the laboratory. The findings showed that emotional susceptibility moderated the negative effect of hazy conditions on interpersonal trust, and negative emotion mediated the effect of hazy conditions on interpersonal trust. The findings advance the understanding of the impact of air pollution on interpersonal trust and social relations and the associated psychological mechanisms and boundary conditions. They have important real-life implications.