scholarly journals Beliefs in Misinformation and Conspiracy Theories About COVID- 19: a Triangular Relationship Between Analytic Thinking, Depressive States, and Misperception

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Delmastro ◽  
Marinella Paciello
Keyword(s):  
Affective State ◽  
Italian Population ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Analytic Thinking ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Symptoms Of Depression ◽  
Gender Education ◽  
State Of Mind ◽  
Triangular Relationship ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Beliefs about misinformation and conspiracy theories are often associated with a state of mind. With the spread of the pandemic there has been an outbreak of depression cases among the population. In this paper, we attempt to test the relationship between affective states and beliefs in misinformation about COVID-19 during the early phase of the pandemic. We do this through a survey carried out on a random and representative sample of the Italian population that allows us to go and verify the co-evolution of many factors: i.e., beliefs in misinformation, symptoms of depression, perceptions and misperceptions about COVID-19, ways in which citizens got informed about the pandemic, and sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., age, gender, education). The results show that the relationship between affective state and beliefs in misinformation exists but is more complex than hypothesized.

scholarly journals Intelligent Monitoring of Affective Factors Underlying Sport Performance by Means of Wearable and Mobile Technology

Proceedings ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (19) ◽  
pp. 1202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Bailon ◽  
Miguel Damas ◽  
Hector Pomares ◽  
Daniel Sanabria ◽  
Pandelis Perakakis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wearable Sensors ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Sport Performance ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Complete Evaluation ◽  
Affective Factors ◽  
Physiological Variables ◽  
Sport Events ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

The fluctuation of affective states is a contributing factor to sport performance variability. The context surrounding athletes during their daily life and the evolution of their physiological variables beyond sport events are relevant factors, as they modulate the affective state of the subject over time. However, traditional procedures to assess the affective state are limited to self-reported questionnaires within controlled settings, thus removing the impact of the context. This work proposes a multimodal, context-aware platform that combines the data acquired through smartphones and wearable sensors to assess the affective state of the athlete. The platform is aimed at ubiquitously monitoring the fluctuations of affective states during longitudinal studies within naturalistic environments, overcoming the limitations of previous studies and allowing for the complete evaluation of the factors that could modulate the affective state. This system will also facilitate and expedite the analysis of the relationship between affective states and sport performance.

Exploring the Link Between Task Complexity and Students’ Affective States During Engineering Laboratory Activities

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qianyu Hu ◽  
Shruthi Bezawada ◽  
Allison Gray ◽  
Conrad Tucker ◽  
Timothy Brick
Keyword(s):  
Task Complexity ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Dropping Out ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Weak Correlation ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Fundamental Understanding ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
And Task

Assessment and feedback play an instrumental role in an individual’s learning process. Continued assistance is required to help students learn better and faster. This need is especially prominent in engineering laboratories where students must perform a wide range of tasks using different machines. One approach to understanding how students feel towards using certain machines is to assess their affective states while they use these machines. Affective state can be defined as the state of feeling an emotion. The authors of this work hypothesize that there is a correlation between students’ perceived affective states and task complexity. By adopting the Wood’s complexity model, the authors propose to assess how the correlations of perceived affective states of students change while they perform tasks of different complexity. In this study, each student performs a “hard” and an “easy” task on the same machine. Each student is given the same tasks using the same materials. Knowledge gained from testing this hypothesis will provide a fundamental understanding of the tasks that negatively impact students’ affective states and risk them potentially dropping out of STEM tracks, and the tasks that positively impact students’ affective states and encourage them to engage in more STEM-related activities. A case study involving 22 students using a power saw machine is conducted. Perceived affective states and completion time were collected. It was found that task complexity has an effect on subjects’ affective states. In addition, we observed some weak correlation between some of the perceived affective states and laboratory task performance. The distribution of correlation between affective states may change as the tasks change. With the knowledge of the relationship between task complexity and affective states, there is the potential to predict students’ affective states before starting a given engineering task.

scholarly journals Conspiratorial Beliefs and Cognitive Styles: An Integrated Look on Analytic Thinking, Critical Thinking, and Scientific Reasoning in Relation to (Dis)trust in Conspiracy Theories

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biljana Gjoneska
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Behavioral Interventions ◽  
Scientific Reasoning ◽  
Cognitive Styles ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Analytic Thinking ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Objective Understanding ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
The Relationship

The tendency to believe in conspiracy theories (implying secret and malevolent plots by scheming groups or individuals), incites growing decennial interest among psychological researchers (exploring the associated personality traits, worldviews and cognitive styles of people). The link between the conspiratorial beliefs and the cognitive styles remains of particular interest to scholars, requiring integrated theoretical considerations. This perspective article will focus on the relationship between the propensity to (dis)trust conspiracy theories and three cognitive styles: analytic thinking, critical thinking, and scientific reasoning. Analytic thinking (inclination toward slow and deliberate processing of information in a conscious effort to mitigate biases and reach objective understanding of facts), is a well-studied concept in the context of conspiratorial beliefs, while the negative mutual relationship seems well-evidenced. On the other hand, the evidence on the link with the critical thinking (readiness to consider, reason, appraise, review, and interpret facts to update existing beliefs) has only started to emerge in the last years. Finally, scientific reasoning (ability to apply principles of scientific inquiry to formulate, test, revise and update knowledge in accordance with new evidence), is the least studied of the three cognitive styles in relation to conspiracy theories. The present article will: (a) revise the (lack of) scientific consensus on the definitional and conceptual aspects (by providing theoretical framework); (b) summarize the state of the art on the subject (by providing overview of empirical evidence); (c) discuss directions for future research (especially in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic). An integrated perspective on the relationship between conspiratorial beliefs and cognitive styles of people, may serve to inspire future behavioral interventions.

scholarly journals Affective States and Performance Outcomes – The Findings of Preliminary Research Involving Pentathletes

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-24
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Samełko ◽  
Monika Guszkowska
Keyword(s):  
Female Athletes ◽  
Mood State ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Performance Outcomes ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Affective States ◽  
State Variables ◽  
And Performance ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Introduction. The aim of this article is to discuss the relationship between affective states experienced by athletes and the outcome of their performance. The article presents the findings of a pilot study which made it possible to determine the relationship between the emotional states, mood, and level of stress of a group of pentathletes and the outcomes they achieved in a sports competition. Material and methods. The study involved 12 senior modern pentathletes, including 7 male and 5 female athletes. The following standard psychology questionnaires were used in the study: the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), and the Profile of Mood State (POMS). Performance was assessed based on the number of points achieved by the pentathletes in particular events in the pentathlon, which are held according to the rules set by the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM). Results. The findings of the study confirmed that there was a correlation between the athletes’ mood and emotions and the outcome of their performance. The level of stress strongly negatively correlated with both the outcome they expected to achieve and the one they actually achieved for the combined event (running and shooting). For this event a relationship was also found between the athletes’ affective states and their outcomes: in running and shooting there was a positive and statistically significant correlation between the level of positive emotions and anger and the results achieved. However, friendliness, one of the other affective state variables that were measured, correlated negatively with the outcomes of the athletes’ performance. Conclusions. In the group of pentathletes who participated in the study, a high level of anger was associated with better outcomes, and a high level of friendliness had an adverse effect on the results achieved. The findings of the current study confirm that there is a relationship between affective states and performance outcomes, but the findings do not correspond with Morgan’s iceberg profile.

Early Parosmia Signs and Affective States Predict Depression and Anxiety Symptoms 6 Months After a Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 483-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanny Lecuyer Giguere ◽  
Benoit Jobin ◽  
Joëlle Robert ◽  
Laurianne Bastien ◽  
Jean-François Giguère ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
Mild Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Depression And Anxiety ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Symptoms Of Depression ◽  
Olfactory Impairment

Abstract This longitudinal study aimed to evaluate qualitative (parosmia) and quantitative (hyposmia/anosmia) olfaction 2–4 weeks (baseline) and 6 months (follow-up) after a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). We further evaluated the predictive value of baseline depression, anxiety, and olfaction scores on depression and anxiety at follow-up. At baseline, olfactory function and affective state were assessed in 107 participants (53 patients with mTBI; 54 healthy controls). At follow-up, data were collected on 71 participants (32 patients and 39 controls). Both at baseline and follow-up, patients with mTBI showed more signs of parosmia, depression, and anxiety compared with controls. However, patients did not, neither at baseline nor follow-up, show quantitative olfactory impairment. Moreover, although baseline scores of depression and anxiety helped predict the development of symptoms of depression and anxiety at follow-up, adding parosmia scores to the prediction model significantly increased the amount of explained variances. Clinicians should implement affective and olfactory evaluation to predict patients’ affective outcome.

scholarly journals Subjective Rank of the Competition as a Factor Differentiating Between the Affective States of Swimmers and Their Sport Performance

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Samełko ◽  
Monika Guszkowska ◽  
Anna Kuk
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Mood State ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Sport Performance ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Stress Scale ◽  
Sports Events ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeThe aim of the study was to establish the differences in affective states of swimmers depending on the subjective rank of the competition and the relationship between affective states and performance in sports competitions of low, medium and high subjectively perceived rank.MethodsThe respondents (n = 31) aged from 15 to 23 years (18.1 ± 2.397) were studied using the psychological questionnaires Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), Profile of Mood State (POMS), and Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) during sports events. 362 measurements using POMS and 232 measurements using PANAS before the starts were collected. The significance of intergroup differences was determined using the Kruskal-Wallis test. A stepwise regression analysis was used to determine the emotional predictors of sports results.ResultsSubjective rank of sports competition differentiated significantly anger (chi2 = 6.826; p = 0.033), confusion (chi2 = 11.345; p = 0.003), depression (chi2 = 10.2; p = 0.006), fatigue (chi2 = 49.394; p ≤ 0.001), vigour (chi2 = 11.345; p ≤ 0.001), positive emotions (chi2 = 51.233; p ≤ 0.001), and negative emotions (chi2 = 11.552; p = 0.003). Regression analysis showed the influence of mood states and positive emotions on the sports result.ConclusionThe swimmers’ affective state changed depending on the subjective rank of the competition. Depression and positive emotional state made it possible to predict the result in medium- and high-rank competition.

scholarly journals Towards estimating affective states in Virtual Reality based on behavioral data

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentin Holzwarth ◽  
Johannes Schneider ◽  
Joshua Handali ◽  
Joy Gisler ◽  
Christian Hirt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
User Study ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Head Movements ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Physical Demand ◽  
Perceived Performance ◽  
Sequential Administration ◽  
Better Than

AbstractInferring users’ perceptions of Virtual Environments (VEs) is essential for Virtual Reality (VR) research. Traditionally, this is achieved through assessing users’ affective states before and after being exposed to a VE, based on standardized, self-assessment questionnaires. The main disadvantage of questionnaires is their sequential administration, i.e., a user’s affective state is measured asynchronously to its generation within the VE. A synchronous measurement of users’ affective states would be highly favorable, e.g., in the context of adaptive systems. Drawing from nonverbal behavior research, we argue that behavioral measures could be a powerful approach to assess users’ affective states in VR. In this paper, we contribute by providing methods and measures evaluated in a user study involving 42 participants to assess a users’ affective states by measuring head movements during VR exposure. We show that head yaw significantly correlates with presence, mental and physical demand, perceived performance, and system usability. We also exploit the identified relationships for two practical tasks that are based on head yaw: (1) predicting a user’s affective state, and (2) detecting manipulated questionnaire answers, i.e., answers that are possibly non-truthful. We found that affective states can be predicted significantly better than a naive estimate for mental demand, physical demand, perceived performance, and usability. Further, manipulated or non-truthful answers can also be estimated significantly better than by a naive approach. These findings mark an initial step in the development of novel methods to assess user perception of VEs.

scholarly journals The dangers of blind trust: Examining the interplay among social media news use, misinformation identification, and news trust on conspiracy beliefs

2021 ◽  
pp. 096366252199802
Author(s):  
Xizhu Xiao ◽  
Porismita Borah ◽  
Yan Su
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
National Survey ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
News Consumption ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs ◽  
Moderation Model ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Significant Moderator ◽  
News Use

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.

Are misinformation, antiscientific claims, and conspiracy theories for political extremists?

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 583-605
Author(s):  
Adam M. Enders ◽  
Joseph E. Uscinski
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Political Orientations ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs ◽  
Political Left ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Political Groups ◽  
Representative Samples

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.

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