Contracting COVID-19: a longitudinal investigation of the impact of beliefs and knowledge

AbstractRecent work has found that an individual’s beliefs and personal characteristics can impact perceptions of and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Certain individuals—such as those who are politically conservative or who endorse conspiracy theories—are less likely to engage in preventative behaviors like social distancing. The current research aims to address whether these individual differences not only affect people’s reactions to the pandemic, but also their actual likelihood of contracting COVID-19. In the early months of the pandemic, U.S. participants responded to a variety of individual difference measures as well as questions specific to the pandemic itself. Four months later, 2120 of these participants responded with whether they had contracted COVID-19. Nearly all of our included individual difference measures significantly predicted whether a person reported testing positive for the virus in this four-month period. Additional analyses revealed that all of these relationships were primarily mediated by whether participants held accurate knowledge about COVID-19. These findings offer useful insights for developing more effective interventions aimed at slowing the spread of both COVID-19 and future diseases. Moreover, some findings offer critical tests of the validity of such theoretical frameworks as those concerning conspiratorial ideation and disgust sensitivity within a real-world context.

Download Full-text

Contracting COVID-19: A Longitudinal Investigation of the Impact of Beliefs and Knowledge

10.1101/2021.04.15.21255556 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Courtney A. Moore ◽

Benjamin C. Ruisch ◽

Javier A. Granados Samayoa ◽

Shelby T. Boggs ◽

Jesse T. Ladanyi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Individual Difference ◽

Personal Characteristics ◽

Theoretical Frameworks ◽

Behavioral Reactions ◽

Conspiracy Theories ◽

Individual Difference Variables ◽

Longitudinal Investigation ◽

Accurate Knowledge ◽

Effective Interventions ◽

The Impact

AbstractRecent work has found that an individual’s beliefs and personal characteristics can impact perceptions of and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Certain individuals—such as those who are politically conservative, endorse conspiracy theories, or who believe the threat of COVID-19 to be exaggerated—are less likely to engage in such preventative behaviors as social distancing. The current research aims to address whether these individual difference variables not only affect people’s subjective and behavioral reactions to the pandemic, but also whether they actually impact individuals’ likelihood of contracting COVID-19. In the early months of the pandemic, U.S. participants responded to a variety of individual difference measures as well as questions specific to COVID-19 and the pandemic itself. Four months later, 2,120 of these participants responded with whether they had contracted COVID-19. Nearly all of our included individual difference measures significantly predicted whether a person reported believing they had contracted COVID-19 as well as whether they had actually tested positive for the virus in this four-month period. Additional analyses revealed that all of these relationships were primarily mediated by whether participants held accurate knowledge about COVID-19. These findings offer useful insights for developing more effective interventions aimed at slowing the spread of both COVID-19 and future diseases. Moreover, some findings offer critical tests of the validity of such theoretical frameworks as those concerning conspiratorial ideation and disgust sensitivity within a real-world context.

Download Full-text

Just Like Leaves in the Wind? Exploring the Effect of the Interplay of Media Coverage and Personal Characteristics on Issue Salience

10.1093/oso/9780198792130.003.0003 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Agatha Kratz ◽

Harald Schoen

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Panel Data ◽

Financial Crisis ◽

Media Coverage ◽

News Coverage ◽

Personal Characteristics ◽

Election Campaign ◽

Issue Salience ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

The Impact

This chapter explores the effect of the interplay of personal characteristics and news coverage on issue salience during the 2009 to 2015 period and during the election campaign in 2013. We selected four topics that played a considerable role during this period: the labor market, pensions and healthcare, immigration, and the financial crisis. The evidence from pooled cross-sectional data and panel data supports the notion that news coverage affects citizens’ issue salience. For obtrusive issues, news coverage does not play as large a role as for rather remote topics like the financial crisis and immigration. The results also lend credence to the idea that political predilections and other individual differences are related to issue salience and constrain the impact of news coverage on voters’ issue salience. However, the evidence for the interplay of individual differences and media coverage proved mild at best.

Download Full-text

Partisanship, Individual Differences, and News Media Exposure as Predictors of Conspiracy Beliefs

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly ◽

10.1177/1077699017728919 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 95 (3) ◽

pp. 691-713 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Barry A. Hollander

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Survey Data ◽

Individual Difference ◽

News Media ◽

Explanatory Power ◽

Media Exposure ◽

Conspiracy Theories ◽

Fox News ◽

Political World ◽

Conspiracy Beliefs

Conspiracy theories are woven into America’s social and political fabric. While such beliefs help some individuals organize their political world, their popularity also raise concerns about the health of a democracy when those governed also suspect powerful forces work against their interests. The research here examines national survey data to demonstrate such beliefs have both partisan and individual difference explanations. Generic news media exposure offers little explanatory power, but exposure to Fox News programming predicts greater belief in theories critical of Democrats.

Download Full-text

Modeling cognitive adaptation: A longitudinal investigation of the impact of individual differences and coping on college adjustment and performance.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology ◽

10.1037/0022-3514.63.6.989 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 63 (6) ◽

pp. 989-1003 ◽

Cited By ~ 518

Author(s):

Lisa G. Aspinwall ◽

Shelley E. Taylor

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

College Adjustment ◽

Cognitive Adaptation ◽

Longitudinal Investigation ◽

And Performance ◽

And Coping ◽

The Impact

Download Full-text

Individual difference predictors of perceived organizational change fairness

Journal of Managerial Psychology ◽

10.1108/jmp-02-2014-0061 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 31 (2) ◽

pp. 420-433 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Xiaohong Xu ◽

Stephanie C. Payne ◽

Margaret T. Horner ◽

Allison L. Alexander

Keyword(s):

Organizational Change ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Individual Difference ◽

Self Efficacy ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Resistance To Change ◽

Equation Modeling ◽

Perceived Fairness ◽

Content Type ◽

The Impact

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how individual differences influence employees’ attitude toward organizational change. Specifically, the present study examined how and why proactive personality, dispositional resistance to change, and change self-efficacy influence employees’ perceived fairness about the organizational change. Design/methodology/approach – Structural equation modeling was utilized to analyze the survey data obtained from a sample of 140 food service employees after some organizational changes in leadership, menu offerings, and facilities. Findings – The results revealed support for two micromediational chains predicting change fairness: first, change self-efficacy leads to less uncertainty and second, dispositional resistance to change leads to less communication regarding change resulting in employees perceiving they have fewer opportunities to voice concerns about the changes. Research limitations/implications – The cross-sectional design prevents causal inferences and the generalizability of the present findings beyond similar samples experiencing similar changes is unknown. However, the predictions were based on theories that apply to all employees regardless of the changes or the employees’ occupations or workplace. Social implications – Employees with particular personality traits are more receptive to change, suggesting that organizations should consider the impact of individual differences when facing large-scale change. To ensure the success of organizational change, organizations should communicate with employees and encourage employee input before implementing change which in turn improves the chances that employees will have favorable reactions to the change. Originality/value – This is the first study to examine how and why individual difference variables influence employees’ perceptions about organizational change fairness.

Download Full-text

Something’s Going on Here

Journal of Individual Differences ◽

10.1027/1614-0001/a000268 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 39 (4) ◽

pp. 229-237 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Joshua Hart ◽

Molly Graether

Keyword(s):

Individual Difference ◽

Real World ◽

Mortality Salience ◽

Political Orientation ◽

Integrative Approach ◽

Personal Safety ◽

Conspiracy Theories ◽

Conspiracy Beliefs

Abstract. Research on individual-difference factors predicting belief in conspiracy theories has proceeded along several independent lines that converge on a profile of conspiracy believers as individuals who are relatively untrusting, ideologically eccentric, concerned about personal safety, and prone to perceiving agency in actions and profundity in bullshit. The present research represents the first attempt at an integrative approach to testing the independent contributions of these diverse factors to conspiratorial thinking. Two studies (N = 1,253) found that schizotypy, dangerous-world beliefs, and bullshit receptivity independently and additively predict endorsement of generic (i.e., nonpartisan) conspiracy beliefs. Results suggest that “hyperactive” agency detection and political orientation (and related variables) might also play a role. The studies found no effects of situational threats (mortality salience or a sense of powerlessness) – though it remains to be seen whether real-world instantiations of situational threats might move some people to seek refuge in conspiratorial ideation.

Download Full-text

The Need to Belong and the Relationship Between Loneliness and Health

Zeitschrift für Gesundheitspsychologie ◽

10.1026/0943-8149/a000129 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 22 (4) ◽

pp. 194-201 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Freda-Marie Hartung ◽

Britta Renner

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Social Isolation ◽

Social Situation ◽

First Year ◽

Health State ◽

Need To Belong ◽

First Year University ◽

Perceived Social Isolation ◽

The Impact ◽

The Relationship

Humans are social animals; consequently, a lack of social ties affects individuals’ health negatively. However, the desire to belong differs between individuals, raising the question of whether individual differences in the need to belong moderate the impact of perceived social isolation on health. In the present study, 77 first-year university students rated their loneliness and health every 6 weeks for 18 weeks. Individual differences in the need to belong were found to moderate the relationship between loneliness and current health state. Specifically, lonely students with a high need to belong reported more days of illness than those with a low need to belong. In contrast, the strength of the need to belong had no effect on students who did not feel lonely. Thus, people who have a strong need to belong appear to suffer from loneliness and become ill more often, whereas people with a weak need to belong appear to stand loneliness better and are comparatively healthy. The study implies that social isolation does not impact all individuals identically; instead, the fit between the social situation and an individual’s need appears to be crucial for an individual’s functioning.

Download Full-text

Self-Reported Sense of Smell Predicts Disgust Sensitivity and Disgust Reactivity

Journal of Individual Differences ◽

10.1027/1614-0001/a000263 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 39 (4) ◽

pp. 191-195

Author(s):

Nicholas J. Kelley ◽

Adrienne L. Crowell

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Individual Difference ◽

Olfactory Stimulus ◽

Disgust Sensitivity ◽

Sense Of Smell ◽

Olfactory Ability ◽

Good Proxy ◽

Insight Into

Abstract. Two studies tested the hypothesis that self-reported sense of smell (i.e., metacognitive insight into one’s olfactory ability) predicts disgust sensitivity and disgust reactivity. Consistent with our predictions two studies demonstrated that disgust correlates with self-reported sense of smell. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated, from an individual difference perspective, that trait-like differences in disgust relate to self-reported sense of smell. Physical forms of disgust (i.e., sexual and pathogen disgust) drove this association. However, the association between self-reported sense of smell and disgust sensitivity is small, suggesting that it is likely not a good proxy for disgust sensitivity. The results of Study 2 extended this finding by demonstrating that individual differences in self-reported sense of smell influence how individuals react to a disgusting olfactory stimulus. Those who reported having a better sense of smell (or better insight into their olfactory ability) found a disgusting smell significantly more noxious as compared to participants reporting having a poor sense of smell (or poor insight into their olfactory ability). The current findings suggest that a one-item measure of self-reported sense of smell may be an effective tool in disgust research.

Download Full-text

Cognitive Reflection Effects on Time Discounting

Journal of Individual Differences ◽

10.1027/1614-0001/a000254 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 39 (2) ◽

pp. 99-106 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Michał Białek ◽

Przemysław Sawicki

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Individual Difference ◽

Delay Discounting ◽

Reference Point ◽

Reference Points ◽

Cognitive Reflection Test ◽

Process Information ◽

Time Discounting ◽

Cognitive Reflection ◽

The Way

Abstract. In this work, we investigated individual differences in cognitive reflection effects on delay discounting – a preference for smaller sooner over larger later payoff. People are claimed to prefer more these alternatives they considered first – so-called reference point – over the alternatives they considered later. Cognitive reflection affects the way individuals process information, with less reflective individuals relying predominantly on the first information they consider, thus, being more susceptible to reference points as compared to more reflective individuals. In Experiment 1, we confirmed that individuals who scored high on the Cognitive Reflection Test discount less strongly than less reflective individuals, but we also show that such individuals are less susceptible to imposed reference points. Experiment 2 replicated these findings additionally providing evidence that cognitive reflection predicts discounting strength and (in)dependency to reference points over and above individual difference in numeracy.

Download Full-text