Responses of the public towards the government in times of crisis.

We experimentally investigate how and when the public responds to government actions during times of crisis. Public reactions are shown to follow different processes, depending on whether government performs in exemplary or unsatisfactory ways to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 'how' question is addressed by proposing that negative moral emotions mediate public reactions to bad government actions, and positive moral emotions mediate reactions to good government actions. Tests of mediation are conducted while taking into account attitudes and trust in the government as rival hypotheses. The 'when' question is studied by examining self-regulatory moderators governing the experience of moral emotions and their effects. These include conspiracy beliefs, political ideology, attachment coping styles and collective values. A total of 357 citizens of a representative sample of adult Norwegians were randomly assigned to two experimental groups and a control group, where complaining, putting pressure on the government and compliance to Covid-19 policies were dependent variables. The findings show that negative moral emotions mediate the effects of government doing badly on complaining and pressuring the government, with conspiracy beliefs moderating the experience of negative moral emotions and attachment coping moderating the effects of negative moral emotions. The results also show that positive moral emotions mediate the effects of government doing well on compliance with COVID-19 regulations, with political ideology moderating the experience of positive moral emotions and collective values moderating the effects of positive moral emotions.

Employees' Work-Related Well-Being during COVID-19 Pandemic: An Integrated Perspective of Technology Acceptance Model and JD-R Theory.

Employees' work-related well-being has become one of the most significant interests of researchers and organizations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examines how job characteristics such as mental load and team support, and technology-related factors such as perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and technology acceptance, impact employees' work engagement as a dimension of work well-being. Data were collected through a sample of 610 academic employees from three Norwegian universities after COVID-19 restrictions were implemented. The structural model estimation showed that mental load, perceived team support, and technology acceptance were significantly related to work engagement. It also showed that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and mental load were significantly related to technology acceptance. Furthermore, the analysis showed that technology acceptance partially mediates the relationship between job characteristics and work engagement, and fully mediates the relationship between technology-related perceptions and work engagement. Building on the technology acceptance model (TAM) and job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, this study provides insights into the effects of job-related and technology-related factors on remote workers' well-being. By doing so, we contribute to the existing literature by demonstrating how remote working with the use of newly implemented technologies can be related to employees' well-being during a pandemic.

Psychological Underpinnings of Brands.

Research in psychology has shown that even routinely experienced everyday objects such as brands can trigger cognitively engaging, emotional, and socially meaningful experiences. In this article, we review three key areas where current advances reside: brands as passive objects with utilitarian and symbolic meanings, brands as relationship partners and regulators of personal relationships, and brands as creators of social identity with social group linking value. Research in these areas is grounded in a number of fundamental perspectives within cognitive, emotional, motivational, personality, interpersonal, and group psychology. We conclude by addressing emerging areas for research.

Framing a trust game as a power game greatly affects interbrain synchronicity between trustor and trustee.

We used dual electroencephalography (EEG) to measure brain activity simultaneously in pairs of trustors and trustees playing a 15-round trust game framed as a "trust game" versus a "power game". Four major findings resulted: first, earnings in each round were higher in the trust than in the power game. Second, in the trust game, reaction time for strategic deliberations was significantly longer for the trustee than the trustor. In the power game, however, the trustee took longer to think about how much money to repay, whereas the trustor took longer to think about how much money to invest. Third, prediction accuracy for the amount exchanged was higher in the trust game than in the power game. Fourth, interbrain synchronicity gauged with the phase-locking value of alpha bands in the brain - especially the frontal and central regions - was higher in the power game than in the trust game. We infer that this last finding reflects elevated mutual strategic deliberation in the power game. These behavioral and neuroscience-based findings give a better understanding of the framing effects of a trust game on the strategic deliberations of both trustor and trustee seeking to attain wealth.

Facial Attractiveness as a Function of Athletic Prowess.

We investigate the relationship between facial attractiveness and athletic prowess. We study the connection between subjective facial attractiveness (measured on a 5-point scale of judged facial attractiveness) and athletes by gender and age of respondents. Five age classes were investigated in Studies 1-5: preadolescents (average age: 8.85 years: n = 92), adolescents (average age: 15.8 years; n = 82), young adults (average age: 21.6 years; n = 181), middle-aged adults (average age: 47.5 years; n = 189), and older adults (65 years old; n = 183). The findings show that world-class athletes are perceived as more facially attractive than amateur athletes, with women athletes perceived as more facially attractive than men, and these findings generally occur to a greater extent for female than male respondents. These findings hold for preadolescents, adolescents, young adults, and older adults. However, results were mixed for middle-aged adults where generally amateur athletes were evaluated more attractive than world-class and men athletes more attractive than women.

Exploring the Effect of Attachment Styles and Winning or Losing a Status Contest on Testosterone Levels.

A person's ability to form relationships and seek and attain social status affects their chances of survival. We study how anxious and avoidant-attachment styles and subsequent winning or losing affects the testosterone (T) levels of team members playing two status contests. The first is a management game played by teams striving to earn the most profits. Winners and losers emerge due to the cognitive endeavor of the players, which provokes intense status dynamics. Avoidant-attached winners do not show higher T levels whereas anxious-attached winners do. The second is an economic game which is rigged and favors some teams to become richer than others; teams have the option though to trade with each other and reduce the self-perpetuating rich-poor dynamics embedded in the game. Besides attachment styles, we here also explore how authentic pride as a self-conscious emotion affects team members' T levels as players trade with others to create more fairness. As in the first status contest, players' T levels are not significantly affected by their avoidant attachment style, neither as a main effect nor in interaction with winning or losing the game. However, similar to the first game, players' anxious attachment style affects their T levels: anxious-attached players generate significantly higher T levels when winning the game, but only when experiencing high authentic pride during the game. In short, the moderating effects of attachment style on winners' T levels are partly replicated in both status games which allows us to better understand the functioning of working models of attachment styles during and after status contests and gives us a better understanding of working models of attachment styles in general.

Domestic food practices: A study of food management behaviors and the role of food preparation planning in reducing waste.

Recent research has started to show the key role of daily food provision practices in affecting household food waste. Building on and extending these previous contributions, the objective of this paper is to investigate how individuals' everyday practices regarding food (e.g., shopping, cooking, eating, etc.) lead to food waste, and how policy makers and the food industry can implement effective strategies to influence such practices and ultimately help consumers reduce food waste. The research performs three Studies; a critical incident qualitative study (Study 1; N = 514) and a quantitative, survey-based study (Study 2; N = 456) to identify and examine relevant food management behaviors associated with domestic waste. Lastly, findings from a field experiment (Study 3; N = 210) suggest that a specific educational intervention, directed at increasing consumers' perceived skills related to food preparation planning behaviors, reduces domestic food waste. Implications of the research for policy makers and the food industry are discussed.

Predictors of medication adherence and persistence in Medicaid enrollees with developmental disabilities and type 2 diabetes.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of diabetes mellitus is high among patients with developmental disabilities (cerebral palsy, autism, Down's syndrome and cognitive disabilities). OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to examine the racial health disparities in medication adherence and medication persistence in developmentally disabled adults with type 2 diabetes enrolled in Medicaid. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study using the MarketScan(®) Multi-State Medicaid Database. Adults aged 18-64 years with a prior diagnosis of a developmental disability (cerebral palsy/autism/down's/cognitive disabilities) and a new diagnosis of type 2 diabetes enrolled in Medicaid from January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2006, were included. Adults were included if they had a continuous enrollment for at least 12 months and were excluded if they were dual eligible. Anti-diabetes medication adherence and diabetes medication persistence were measured using multivariate logistic regression and the Cox-proportional hazard regression, respectively. RESULTS: The study population comprised of 1529 patients. Although overall diabetes medication adherence in this population was optimal, African Americans had significantly lower odds (25%) of adhering to anti-diabetes medications compared to Caucasians (OR = 0.75, 95% CI = 0.58-0.97, P < 0.05). Also, after controlling for other covariates, the rate of discontinuation was higher in African Americans compared to Caucasians (hazard ratio = 1.03, 95% CI = 0.91-1.18, P < 0.629). CONCLUSION: In this study, racial disparities were found in anti-diabetes medication adherence among Medicaid enrollees with developmental disabilities (DD). Studies conducted in the future should examine predictors that impact access to care, availability of primary and specialized care, social support as well as beliefs of racial minority populations with developmental disabilities and chronic conditions like diabetes to optimize medication use outcomes in this especially vulnerable population.

"I am resting but rest less well with you." The moderating effect of anxious attachment style on alpha power during EEG resting state in a social context.

We took EEG recordings to measure task-free resting-state cortical brain activity in 35 participants under two conditions, alone (A) or together (T). We also investigated whether psychological attachment styles shape human cortical activity differently in these two settings. The results indicate that social context matters and that participants' cortical activity is moderated by the anxious, but not avoidant attachment style. We found enhanced alpha, beta and theta band activity in the T rather than the A resting-state condition, which was more pronounced in posterior brain regions. We further found a positive correlation between anxious attachment style and enhanced alpha power in the T vs. A condition over frontal and parietal scalp regions. There was no significant correlation between the absolute powers registered in the other two frequency bands and the participants' anxious attachment style.

The role of attachment styles in regulating the effects of dopamine on the behavior of salespersons.

TWO CLASSIC STRATEGIC ORIENTATIONS HAVE BEEN FOUND TO PERVADE THE BEHAVIOR OF MODERN SALESPERSONS: a sales orientation (SO) where salespersons use deception or guile to get customers to buy even if they do not need a product, and a customer orientation (CO) where salespersons first attempt to discover the customer's needs and adjust their product and selling approach to meet those needs. Study 1 replicates recent research and finds that the Taq A1 variant of the DRD2 gene is not related to either sales or CO, whereas the 7-repeat variant of the DRD4 gene is related to CO but not SO. Study 2 investigates gene × phenotype explanations of orientation of salespersons, drawing upon recent research in molecular genetics and biological/psychological attachment theory. The findings show that attachment style regulates the effects of DRD2 on CO, such that greater avoidant attachment styles lead to higher CO for persons with the A2/A2 variant but neither the A1/A2 nor A1/A1 variants. Likewise, attachment style regulates the effects of DRD4 on CO, such that greater avoidant attachment styles lead to higher CO for persons with the 7-repeat variant but not other variants. No effects were found on a SO, and secure and anxious attachment styles did not function as moderators.

Comparisons of health care utilization outcomes in children with asthma enrolled in private insurance plans versus medicaid.

OBJECTIVES: Very few studies have captured the differences in the outcomes of pediatric patients based on the patients' type of health insurance plan. The purpose of this retrospective cohort study was to examine the impact of the type of health insurance plan (public insurance vs. private insurance) on outcomes (health care utilization and medication adherence) in children with asthma. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study analyzed Medicaid/commercial data from eight states licensed under Thomson Medstat. Subjects were 11,027 children with asthma (6435 enrolled in Medicaid and 4592 enrolled in a commercial health maintenance organization) who newly started asthma pharmacotherapy and were followed up for 12 months before and after the index anti-asthmatic medication fill. Data on health care utilization and medication adherence were examined to compare health care utilization-based outcomes. Quantile regression analysis was used to study medication adherence, and Poisson regression was used to determine health care utilization. RESULTS: Patients with a private insurance plan had significantly higher medication adherence rates (p < .01) compared with those who had a Medicaid plan. Patients with Medicaid plans also were associated with 20% more inpatient hospitalizations and 48% increased odds of emergency department visits, but they had 42% fewer outpatient visits compared with those who had a private plan (all p < .05). CONCLUSION: Children with asthma who are enrolled in Medicaid receive fairly comprehensive coverage of medical services, and thus further research is needed to determine the reasons for poor health care utilization-related outcomes in this population.

Polymorphisms of the OXTR gene explain why sales professionals love to help customers.

Polymorphisms of the OXTR gene affect people's social interaction styles in various social encounters: carriers of the OXTR GG, compared to the OXTR AA/AG in general, are more motivated to interact socially and detect social salience. We focus on sales professionals operating in knowledge intensive organizations. Study 1, with a sample of 141 sales people, shows that carriers of the OXTR GG allele, compared to the OXTR AA/AG allele, are more motivated to help customers than to manipulatively impose goods/services on them. Study 2, using genomic functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on a sample of 21 sales professionals processing facial pictures with different emotional valences, investigates key nuclei of social brain regions (SBRs). Compared to OXTR AA/AG carriers, OXTR GG carriers experience greater effective connectivity between SBRs of interest measured by Granger causality tests using univariate Haugh tests. In addition, the multivariate El-Himdi and Roy tests demonstrate that the amygdala, prefrontal cortex, and pars opercularis (inferior frontal gyrus) play key roles when processing emotional expressions. The bilateral amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) show significantly greater clout-influence on other brain regions-for GG allele carriers than non-carriers; likewise, the bilateral pars opercularis, left amygdala, and left mPFC are more receptive to activity in other brain regions among GG allele carriers than AG/AA allele carriers are. Thus, carriers of the OXTR GG allele are more sensitive to changes in emotional cues, enhancing social salience. To our knowledge, this is the first study on how insights from imaging genetics help understanding of the social motivation of people operating in a professional setting.

Associations between physician financial incentives and the prescribing of anti-asthmatic medications in children in US outpatient settings.

This study examined how sociological factors including financial incentives influenced whether asthmatic children received a controller medication, a reliever medication or both. The 2007 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey was used for this analysis. A logistic regression was applied to capture the physician's decision-making and to analyze anti-asthmatic medication choice. Children with asthma seeing a pediatrician were approximately 69% more likely than children seeing a family doctor to receive a controller medication than reliever medication (p<0.01). Children with asthma enrolled in a capitated plan were 23% more likely to receive controller medications than reliever medications (p<0.01). Children with asthma of Hispanic ethnicity were 28% less likely to receive controller medication compared to non-Hispanic white (p<0.05) children. Compared with physicians with lower financial incentives, physicians who received medium (39%, p<0.05) or higher (42%, p<0.01) financial incentives from payers were more likely to prescribe controller medication than reliever medication for asthmatic children. An important finding of this study is that physicians who had medium or higher financial incentives from payers were about 40% more likely to prescribe a controller medication in asthmatic children. Findings suggest that physician incentives and capitated plans are associated with an increase in physicians prescribing controller medications or preventive care in children with asthma.

Comparative performance of comorbidity indices in predicting health care-related behaviors and outcomes among Medicaid enrollees with type 2 diabetes.

No single gold standard of comorbidity measure has been identified, and the performance of comorbidity indices vary according to the outcome of interest. The authors compared the Charlson Comorbidity Index, Elixhauser Index (EI), Chronic Disease Score (CDS), and Health-related Quality of Life Comorbidity Index (HRQL-CI) in predicting health care-related behaviors (physicians' concordance with diabetes care standards and patients' oral antidiabetic drug [OAD] adherence) and outcomes (health care utilization and expenditures) among Medicaid enrollees with type 2 diabetes. A total of 9832 diabetes patients who used OAD were identified using data from the MarketScan Medicaid database from 2003 to 2007. Predictive performance of the comorbidity index was assessed using multiple regression models controlling for patient demographics, diabetes severity, and baseline health care characteristics. Among the 4 indices, the CDS was best at predicting physician's concordance with care standards. The CDS and HRQL-CI mental index performed better than other indices as predictors of medication adherence. The EI was best at predicting health care utilization and expenditures. These results suggest that, for these low-income diabetes patients, the CDS and HRQL-CI mental index were relatively better risk-adjustment tools for health care-related behavior data evaluation and the EI was the first choice for health care utilization and expenditures data.

Customer-organization relationships: development and test of a theory of extended identities.

We develop a theory of personal, relational, and collective identities that links organizations and consumers. Four targets of identity are studied: small friendship groups of aficionados of Ducati motorcycles, virtual communities centered on Ducatis, the Ducati brand, and Ducati the company. The interplay amongst the identities is shown to order affective, cognitive, and evaluative reactions toward each target. Hypotheses are tested on a sample of 210 Ducati aficionados, and implications of these multiple, extended identities for organizations are examined.

fMRI activities in the emotional cerebellum: a preference for negative stimuli and goal-directed behavior.

Several studies indicate that the cerebellum might play a role in experiencing and/or controlling emphatic emotions, but it remains to be determined whether there is a distinction between positive and negative emotions, and, if so, which specific parts of the cerebellum are involved in these types of emotions. Here, we visualized activations of the cerebellum and extracerebellar regions using high-field fMRI, while we asked participants to observe and imitate images with pictures of human faces expressing different emotional states or with moving geometric shapes as control. The state of the emotions could be positive (happiness and surprise), negative (anger and disgust), or neutral. The positive emotional faces only evoked mild activations of crus 2 in the cerebellum, whereas the negative emotional faces evoked prominent activations in lobules VI and VIIa in its hemispheres and lobules VIII and IX in the vermis. The cerebellar activations associated with negative emotions occurred concomitantly with activations of mirror neuron domains such as the insula and amygdala. These data suggest that the potential role of the cerebellum in control of emotions may be particularly relevant for goal-directed behavior that is required for observing and reacting to another person's (negative) expressions.

Examining determinants of self management behaviors in patients with diabetes: an application of the Theoretical Model of Effortful Decision Making and Enactment.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined determinants of self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) in patients with diabetes based on a theoretical model. The model focuses on two equally important components of the decision process within a single framework: (1) making a decision and (2) enacting the decision. METHODS: Diabetes patients with HbA1c >7% and requiring insulin therapy were recruited from a southeastern Michigan healthcare system. Responses were elicited using a mail-in questionnaire. SMBG was measured using a two-week diary and two recall measures. The applicability of the theoretical model as it relates to SMBG was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). RESULTS: The SEM analysis demonstrated that goal desire is an antecedent to goal intentions and that implementation desire and implementation intentions mediate the path between goal intentions and SMBG. Further, implementation intentions are a significant predictor of SMBG. CONCLUSION: Consistent with the theoretical model, results indicated that implementation desire and implementation intentions mediate the relationship between strength of goal intention and performing specific behaviors to achieve the goal. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: It is evident that in order to be more effective, educational programs or interventions should consider incorporating implementation and action plans to help patients translate decisions and intentions into behavior.

When planning is not enough: the self-regulatory effect of implementation intentions on changing snacking habits.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined whether matching implementation intentions to people's regulatory orientation affects the effectiveness of changing unhealthy snacking habits. DESIGN: Participants' regulatory orientation was either measured (as a chronic trait) or manipulated (as a situational state), and participants were randomly assigned to implementation intention conditions to eat more healthy snacks or avoid eating unhealthy ones. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: A self-reported online food diary of healthy and unhealthy snacks over a 2-day period. RESULTS: Participants with weak unhealthy snacking habits consumed more healthy snacks when forming any type of implementation intentions (regardless of match or mismatch with their regulatory orientation), while participants with strong unhealthy snacking habits consumed more healthy snacks only when forming implementation intentions that matched their regulatory orientations. CONCLUSION: RESULTS suggest that implementation intentions that match regulatory orientation heighten motivation intensity and put snacking under intentional control for people with strong unhealthy snacking habits.

A simple and promising tool to improve self-monitoring of blood glucose in patients with diabetes.

AIM: To examine patient formation of implementation plans, a volitional strategy, and its influence on self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG). METHODS: A randomized experimental-control design over a 2-week time period was used. The study population was diabetes patients with HbA1c >7% and requiring insulin therapy. Patients were recruited from a southeastern Michigan healthcare system. A self-administered intervention was designed to assist patients to formulate plans to perform SMBG. The primary outcome measure was SMBG rates. Three control groups were used to control for testing effects. Hypotheses were tested using ANOVA at a significance level of 0.05. SMBG was measured using a 2-week diary and two recall measures. RESULTS: There were 402 patients with diabetes recruited for the study. Analyses indicated that making implementation plans increased SMBG rates as assessed by a diary and two recall measures. The patients in the experimental group checked their blood sugar up to 7.77 times more than the control groups (sig<0.05) over a 2-week time period as measured by the diary. CONCLUSIONS: Patient behavior can be impacted by using an implementation planning tool. This technique can help improve patient self-monitoring behavior.

Decision-making about the use of hormone therapy among perimenopausal women.

OBJECTIVES: Women reaching menopause must make a controversial decision about whether to use hormone therapy (HT). The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was the organizing framework. The objectives were to determine if (1) influence of different TPB constructs varied with stage of menopause and HT use, (2) women with diabetes were influenced in significantly different ways from women without, (3) the overall perceived behavioural control (PBC) and self-efficacy (SE) have independent effects on intention, and (4) physician influence was mediated by subjective norm (SN). DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey of women from a managed care organization. METHODS: Multiple regression analysis was used to analyse 765 responses (230 from women with diabetes) and separately four main subgroups: (1) early menopause stage and never used HT, (2) late menopause stage and never used HT, (3) late menopause stage and previously used HT, and (4) late menopause stage currently using HT. RESULTS: For the entire sample, the model explains 68% of variance in intention, where SE, physicians' influence, self-identification with menopause as a natural part of ageing, self-identification as someone who wants to delay menopause, HT status, menopause status, and diabetes were added to the TPB. For the entire sample, SE added 2% to the explained variance and the physician determinant added 7%. CONCLUSIONS: An augmented TPB is useful for understanding women's HT use decisions. The theory explains more variance in intention before a behaviour is enacted than after, and decision structure changes over time. PBC and SE have independent effects on intention.