scholarly journals The relationship between fear of COVID-19 and intention to get vaccinated. The serial mediation roles of existential anxiety and conspiracy beliefs

Author(s):  
Fabrizio Scrima ◽  
Silvana Miceli ◽  
Barbara Caci ◽  
Maurizio Cardaci
2021 ◽  
pp. 096366252199802
Author(s):  
Xizhu Xiao ◽  
Porismita Borah ◽  
Yan Su

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, misinformation has been circulating on social media and multiple conspiracy theories have since become quite popular. We conducted a U.S. national survey for three main purposes. First, we aim to examine the association between social media news consumption and conspiracy beliefs specific to COVID-19 and general conspiracy beliefs. Second, we investigate the influence of an important moderator, social media news trust, that has been overlooked in prior studies. Third, we further propose a moderated moderation model by including misinformation identification. Our findings show that social media news use was associated with higher conspiracy beliefs, and trust in social media news was found to be a significant moderator of the relationship between social media news use and conspiracy beliefs. Moreover, our findings show that misinformation identification moderated the relationship between social media news use and trust. Implications are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 583-605
Author(s):  
Adam M. Enders ◽  
Joseph E. Uscinski

Extremist political groups, especially “extreme” Republicans and conservatives, are increasingly charged with believing misinformation, antiscientific claims, and conspiracy theories to a greater extent than moderates and those on the political left by both a burgeoning scholarly literature and popular press accounts. However, previous investigations of the relationship between political orientations and alternative beliefs have been limited in their operationalization of those beliefs and political extremity. We build on existing literature by examining the relationships between partisan and nonpartisan conspiracy beliefs and symbolic and operational forms of political extremity. Using two large, nationally representative samples of Americans, we find that ideological extremity predicts alternative beliefs only when the beliefs in question are partisan in nature and the measure of ideology is identity-based. Moreover, we find that operational ideological extremism is negatively related to nonpartisan conspiracy beliefs. Our findings help reconcile discrepant findings regarding the relationship between political orientations and conspiracy beliefs.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabeen Hussain Bhatti ◽  
Farida Saleem ◽  
Ghulam Murtaza ◽  
Tazeem Ul Haq

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the relationship between green human resource management (GHRM) practices and the environmental performance (EP) of firms belonging to industries that may lean toward environmental pollution (e.g. oil and gas). The authors propose a holistic (serial mediation) model based on the ability-motivation-opportunity (AMO) theory and the social exchange theory (SET) and integrate organizational, i.e. perceived organizational support (POS), and individual, i.e. innovative environmental behavior (IEB), factors as explanatory mechanisms. The authors then test the model in a developing country context.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from white collar workers in the oil and gas industry in Pakistan. A structural equation modeling (SEM) technique and the PROCESS model 6 were used to analyze the hypothesized serial mediation model.FindingsThe authors found support for the fully meditating serial mediation model. Although the direct effects of GHRM and EP were insignificant, the total effects and indirect effects through POS and IEB were significant. Similarly, the research also found support for organizational and individual factors as explanatory mechanisms in the relationship between GHRM and EP.Originality/valueThis research adds to the existing literature on GHRM and the corporate EP link through proposing and testing a model of the mediating effects of POS and IEB. Furthermore, it provides empirical evidence of this model in the oil and gas sector using an Asian developing country as the context of study.


Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 1051 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zheng Yang ◽  
Xi Luo ◽  
Hepeng Jia

A large body of research has found that people’s beliefs in conspiracy theories about infectious diseases negatively impacts their health behaviors concerning vaccination. Conspiracy belief-based vaccination hesitancy has become more rampant after the global outbreak of COVID-19. However, some important questions remain unanswered. For instance, do different versions of conspiracy theories—particularly conspiracy theories about the origin of the epidemic (e.g., that the SARS-CoV-2 leaked from a Wuhan virology laboratory or that the virus was of foreign origin) and the general theories about vaccine conspiracies (e.g., pharmaceutical companies covered up the danger of vaccines or people are being deceived about the effectiveness of vaccines)—have the same effect on vaccination intentions? Through a national survey adopting quota sampling in China, the current study tested the relationship between people’s conspiracy beliefs and their intention to receive the COVID-19 vaccination. The findings show that people’s embrace of conspiracy theories did indeed affect their intention to take COVID-19 shots. However, only conspiracy theories related to vaccines had a significant impact, while belief in more general theories about COVID-19 did not significantly affect vaccination intentions. People’s knowledge of vaccines (vaccine literacy) played an important role in this relationship. People with lower beliefs in vaccines conspiracy theories and higher levels of vaccine literacy were more likely to receive the COVID-19 vaccination.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco De Angelis ◽  
Greta Mazzetti ◽  
Dina Guglielmi

The study aimed to extend the current knowledge of the relationship between job insecurity and performance. In line with traditional stress theories, work-family and burnout were hypothesized as serial mediators of the negative link between job insecurity and job performance. Also, the current study hypothesized that the association between job insecurity and the mediators [i.e., Work-family conflict (WFC) and burnout] could be buffered by perceived organizational justice among employees. Therefore, we empirically tested a moderated serial mediation model. Participants were 370 employees of an Italian multiservice social cooperative. Data were collected using a self-report questionnaire in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. The obtained results indicated that WFC and burnout mediated the association between job insecurity and job performance. Furthermore, perceived organizational justice buffered the relationship between job insecurity and WFC. Concerning job burnout, the association with job insecurity was moderated only among employees perceiving medium and high levels of organizational justice. The moderated serial mediation index provided support to the role of organizational justice in decreasing the association between job insecurity and job performance. This study delves deeper into the variables explaining the relationship between job insecurity and job performance by testing a serial process mechanism that involved WFC and burnout. Additionally, the obtained results provide suggestions to organizations and managers regarding the protective role of organizational justice to sustain employees’ mental health and performance. Practical implications at the organizational and managerial level are provided, along with a focus on the actual impact of the pandemic.


2021 ◽  
pp. 089443932110375
Author(s):  
Il Bong Mun ◽  
Seyoung Lee

The present study investigates the mechanisms underlying the relationship between parental depression and children’s smartphone addiction. It explores the effects of parental depression on children’s smartphone addiction, as well as the mediating roles of parental neglect and children’s self-esteem in this relationship, which multiplies sequentially. We utilize data—comprising 2,396 children and their parents—from the National General Survey on Korean Children, using parent–child dyads. First, a hierarchical regression analysis shows that parental depression significantly and positively predicts children’s smartphone addiction ( B = .29, SE = .03, p < .001). Second, Hayes’s PROCESS macro (Model 6), executed to test the mediation effects, reveals that the effect of parental depression on children’s smartphone addiction is significantly mediated by parental neglect ( B = .07, Boot SE = .01, 95% Boot CI [.05, .10]) and children’s self-esteem ( B = .12, Boot SE = .01, 95% Boot CI [.10, .14]). Moreover, the serial mediation model’s results support that parental neglect and children’s self-esteem serially mediate the relationship between parental depression and children’s smartphone addiction ( B = .02, Boot SE = .004, 95% Boot CI [.01, .03]), implying that a higher level of parental depression is sequentially associated with increased parental neglect that reduces children’s self-esteem and consequently accelerates their smartphone dependence. The theoretical and practical implications of the results as well as the directions for future research are discussed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 304-314
Author(s):  
Nicolette D. Carnahan ◽  
Michele M. Carter ◽  
Nathaniel R. Herr

AbstractBackground:There is evidence that individuals with high levels of social anxiety utilize more safety behaviours and experience more post-event processing than those with lower levels of social anxiety. There are also data to suggest that the relationship between safety behaviour use and social anxiety symptoms is mediated by perceived control of one’s anxiety. Furthermore, it has been suggested that post-event processing influences anticipatory anxiety for a future social situation.Aim:A direct link between the perpetuating factors of social anxiety described above has not been established in the literature. The aim of the current study was to test a model examining the relationship between these constructs.Method:Participants first completed a battery of questionnaires. They then participated in an impromptu, 3-minute speech and were informed they would be videotaped. Following the speech, participants completed measures of anxiety and were instructed to return the following week. During the second session, they were informed they would deliver an additional speech and provided ratings of their anxiety in anticipation of delivering the second speech.Results:The results of a serial mediation support that greater levels of social anxiety lead to less perceived control over one’s anxiety, leading to increased safety behaviour use. The increase in safety behaviours led to an increase of post-event processing which resulted in greater anticipatory anxiety for a future speech task.Conclusions:This study provides novel evidence for the importance of perceived control in the genesis of social anxiety, which has implications for treatment.


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