Conspiratorial thinking during COVID-19: The roles of paranoia, delusion-proneness, and intolerance to uncertainty

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmett M. Larsen ◽  
Kayla R. Donaldson ◽  
Aprajita Mohanty
Keyword(s):  
Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽  
The Body ◽  
Paranoid Ideation ◽  
Health Organizations ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Affective Factors ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Informational Intervention ◽  
The Relationship

The COVID-19 global pandemic has left many feeling a sense of profound uncertainty about their world, safety, and livelihood. Information that can help make sense of this uncertainty is offered by both official health-organizations as well as sources espousing misinformation and conspiracy theories. Individuals high in intolerance of uncertainty (IU) may be particularly impacted by the impoverished epistemic environment and may thus be more drawn to conspiratorial thinking (CT). In the present study we show that endorsement of COVID-19-specific conspiracy theories is associated with higher levels of intolerance of uncertainty as well as anxiety, delusion-proneness, and paranoid ideation. Furthermore, delusion-proneness and paranoia explained the relationship between IU and CT, and emerged as independent partial predictors of CT even when controlling for other facets of schizotypy. In contrast, anxiety did not explain the relationship between IU and CT, suggesting a stronger role of cognitive traits as opposed to affective factors. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of individual differences in IU, delusion proneness and paranoia in the development of CT in the context of the acute uncertainty of a global crisis, in which CT is more prevalent and salient. Informational intervention designs may benefit from leveraging the body of work demonstrating the efficacy of targeting IU to incite meaningful changes in thinking.

scholarly journals Conspiratorial Thinking During COVID-19: The Roles of Paranoia, Delusion-Proneness, and Intolerance of Uncertainty

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmett M. Larsen ◽  
Kayla R. Donaldson ◽  
Megan Liew ◽  
Aprajita Mohanty
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽  
The Body ◽  
Global Crisis ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Informational Intervention ◽  
The Relationship

The COVID-19 global pandemic has left many feeling a sense of profound uncertainty about their world, safety, and livelihood. Sources espousing misinformation and conspiracy theories frequently offer information that can help make sense of this uncertainty. Individuals high in intolerance of uncertainty (IU) may be particularly impacted by the impoverished epistemic environment and may thus be more drawn to conspiratorial thinking (CT). In the present work, we show across 2 studies (N = 519) that COVID-19-specific CT is associated with higher levels of IU as well as delusion-proneness, and paranoia. Furthermore, delusion-proneness and paranoia explained the relationship between IU and CT and emerged as independent partial correlates of CT even when controlling for other facets of schizotypy. In contrast, anxiety did not explain the relationship between IU and CT. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of individual differences in IU, delusion-proneness and paranoia in the development of CT in the context of the acute uncertainty of a global crisis, in which conspiracy theories are more prevalent and salient. Informational intervention designs may benefit from leveraging the body of work demonstrating the efficacy of targeting IU to incite meaningful changes in thinking.

Living with Barren Truths: A Tale of Triumphalism and Tribulations of a Technology

2021 ◽  
pp. 097168582110159
Author(s):  
Sital Mohanty ◽  
Subhasis Sahoo ◽  
Pranay Kumar Swain
Keyword(s):  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Fact ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
The Subject ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Relationship

Science, technology and human values have been the subject of enquiry in the last few years for social scientists and eventually the relationship between science and gender is the subject of an ongoing debate. This is due to the event of globalization which led to the exponential growth of new technologies like assisted reproductive technology (ART). ART, one of the most iconic technological innovations of the twentieth century, has become increasingly a normal social fact of life. Since ART invades multiple human discourses—thereby transforming culture, society and politics—it is important what is sociological about ART as well as what is biological. This article argues in commendation of sociology of technology, which is alert to its democratic potential but does not concurrently conceal the historical and continuing role of technology in legitimizing gender discrimination. The article draws the empirical insights from local articulations (i.e., Odisha state in eastern India) for the understandings of motherhood, freedom and choice, reproductive right and rights over the body to which ART has contributed. Sociologically, the article has been supplemented within the broader perspectives of determinism, compatibilism alongside feminism.

scholarly journals COVID-19 uncertainty and sleep: the roles of perceived stress and intolerance of uncertainty during the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Wu ◽  
Tingzhong Yang ◽  
Daniel L. Hall ◽  
Guihua Jiao ◽  
Lixin Huang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Path Analysis ◽  
Perceived Stress ◽  
Mediation Analysis ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Poor Sleep ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic brings unprecedented uncertainty and stress. This study aimed to characterize general sleep status among Chinese residents during the early stage of the outbreak and to explore the network relationship among COVID-19 uncertainty, intolerance of uncertainty, perceived stress, and sleep status. Methods A cross-sectional correlational survey was conducted online. A total of 2534 Chinese residents were surveyed from 30 provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions of China and regions abroad during the period from February 7 to 14, 2020, the third week of lockdown. Final valid data from 2215 participants were analyzed. Self-report measures assessed uncertainty about COVID-19, intolerance of uncertainty, perceived stress, and general sleep status. Serial mediation analysis using the bootstrapping method and path analysis were applied to test the mediation role of intolerance of uncertainty and perceived stress in the relationship between uncertainty about COVID-19 and sleep status. Results The total score of sleep status was 4.82 (SD = 2.72). Age, place of residence, ethnicity, marital status, infection, and quarantine status were all significantly associated with general sleep status. Approximately half of participants (47.1%) reported going to bed after 12:00 am, 23.0% took 30 min or longer to fall asleep, and 30.3% slept a total of 7 h or less. Higher uncertainty about COVID-19 was significantly positively correlated with higher intolerance of uncertainty (r = 0.506, p < 0.001). The mediation analysis found a mediating role of perceived stress in the relationship between COVID-19 uncertainty and general sleep status (β = 0.015, 95%C.I. = 0.009–0.021). However, IU was not a significant mediator of the relationship between COVID-19 uncertainty and sleep (β = 0.009, 95%C.I. = − 0.002–0.020). Moreover, results from the path analysis further showed uncertainty about COVID-19 had a weak direct effect on poor sleep (β = 0.043, p < 0.05); however, there was a robust indirect effect on poor sleep through intolerance of uncertainty and perceived stress. Conclusions These findings suggest that intolerance of uncertainty and perceived stress are critical factors in the relationship between COVID-19 uncertainty and sleep outcomes. Results are discussed in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and practical policy implications are also provided.

scholarly journals The Relationship between Dramatic Text and Performance with the Centrality of the Body with a Look at Anne Bogart’s Rendition of The Persians

1970 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-31
Author(s):  
Samin Gheitasy ◽  
Leila Montazeri ◽  
Simin Dolatkhah
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Physical Approach ◽  
The World ◽  
Dramatic Text ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Anne Bogart ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Sociological View

The dramatic text defines, to some extent, the structure of the work but the type of performance and the physical approach to the text can represent different meanings. The body of the actor, as a means of conveying concepts from the text to the audience, can be effective in creating different interpretations and meanings of the text. Since eons ago, directors have used the body of the actor with different approaches, and the application of body on the stage has always been underdoing changes. Anne Bogart is one of the few directors who is less known in the Iranian theater despite possessing the most updated and well-known methods of practice and performance in the world. Using her viewpoint method, she brings live and dynamic bodies to the stage; bodies that are able to convey the hidden meanings of the text to the audience in the most suitable way. The overall purpose of this research is to find the relationship between the dramatic text and the performance with the centrality of the body with a sociological view toward the body. To this end, by presenting Foucault's theories, the researchers defines the role of the body in the society and its extent of effectivity and impressibility. Finally, this study explores the implications of this role in each element of Aeschylus’s The Persians, and it shall show how Bogart beautifully represents them using the bodies of her actors during performance.

Nourish the soul or damage the body? Belief in the connection between Christian moral failure and diminished health

2018 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-262
Author(s):  
Steven L Foy ◽  
Collin W Mueller
Keyword(s):  
South Carolina ◽  
Religious Involvement ◽  
The Body ◽  
Religion And Health ◽  
Telephone Interviews ◽  
Moral Failure ◽  
Physical Health Outcomes ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship

Scholars have increasingly noted mechanisms by which religion may be detrimental to one’s health, but few have explored how individuals understand linkages between religious involvement and adverse health. Using data gathered from telephone interviews with Protestants and Catholics in North Carolina and South Carolina, we explore how individuals understand the role of religious moral failure in shaping health consequences. When asked to discuss the relationship between religion and health, 23 respondents described experiences or beliefs regarding how failing to meet the expectations of their religion corresponded with a range of reduced mental and physical health outcomes. Findings underscore the need for additional research on the role of religious involvement and life course experiences in shaping expectations that health declines result from moral failure.

From Analytical Аnthropology to Generative Anthropology

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Nina Sosna
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Active Researcher ◽  
Comprehension Ability ◽  
External Position ◽  
Time Distance ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Generative Anthropology ◽  
Affective Interaction ◽  
Radical Interaction

This article discusses the role of the technical in V.A. Podoroga&apos;s project of studying the literature worlds as archives of human experience. On the level of content, among many other components of these worlds he distinguished working and non-working machines, “gizmos” and various optical devices, including the mechanic eye, camera, mounting, etc. Formally, the action of these machines can be assessed as alienation, though in the context of modern media studies and exploration of the perspectives of anthropology, they can also be described as a problematic contact zone between the human and non-human, with a bias towards breaking the already historically disrupted bodily-affective interaction with the “outside”. Studies of Andrei Platonov&apos;s show the most radical interaction with the technical, in this case causing dissimilation of the human. However, even for this “inhuman” material, Podoroga chooses a form of human-measured approximation and distancing, which allows defending the position of an active researcher, observer, anthropologist. His efforts produce a kind of reconstruction, which at a certain time distance reveals the “seams”, “folds”, “cuts”, “plexuses”, “gaps” that formed at once the experience of the body and experience of writing. This is how the components of literature worlds are extracted, and from them “a picture of the universe can be deduced”. Although an external position to technics is considered to be the only guarantee of the human, even if it is strange, symptomatic, seizure-like, a different understanding of the technical is possible. Without claiming that a “machine” can assemble components in the absence of the observer&apos;s (reader&apos;s) comprehension ability, it seems nevertheless possible to relate the technical to more general principles: the methods of dispersion and gathering that form the form, the principles of intervalization and binding the heterogeneous, and most importantly, the principle of generating conditions for detecting an event. Then it will be necessary to clarify the relationship between techne and literature in the broader sense of poiesis, in the process of which elements can be formed from the indivisible “compressed”.

Examining the Role of Green Transformational Leadership on Promoting Green Organizational Behavior

2019 ◽  
pp. 200-224
Author(s):  
Chipo Mukonza ◽  
Ilze Swarts
Keyword(s):  
Transformational Leadership ◽  
Organizational Behavior ◽  
The Body ◽  
Intellectual Stimulation ◽  
Idealized Influence ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Inspirational Motivation ◽  
Website Analysis ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter examines the role of green transformational leadership on promoting green organizational behavior. Green transformational leadership has been found to be influencing green organizational behavior. The study uses content analysis and website analysis. Nedbank is used in the chapter as an archetype of an organization with a green transformational leadership which has influenced green organizational behavior. Four characteristics of green transformational leadership namely idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration were used. The leadership engages its customer and rewards them for green behavior which is important for intellectual stimulation and motivating their employees. The study contributes to the body of knowledge on green transformational behavior by confirming the relationship. The chapter recommends that more trainings and educational awareness on green values be provided to the management so that ultimately this are emulated and practiced by their employees.

Physiotherapy and Human Relations

2016 ◽  
pp. 67-74
Author(s):  
Donald W. Winnicott
Keyword(s):  
Early Development ◽  
Emotional Development ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Relations ◽  
Somatic Disorder ◽  
Somatic Disorders ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Relationship

In this paper on psycho-somatic disorders, Winnicott begins by acknowledging the vastness of the subject. Psycho-somatic disorder merges into the universal problem of the healthy interaction between the psyche and the soma—that is, between the personality of an individual and the body in which the person lives. The relationship between body and mind, role of early development and stages of emotional development are also discussed.

scholarly journals Of lizards and ideological entrepreneurs: Alex Jones and Infowars in the relationship between populist nationalism and the post-global media ecology

2019 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-59
Author(s):  
H Van den Bulck ◽  
A Hyzen
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Business Model ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
Global Media ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Political Alliances ◽  
The Relationship

This contribution analyses the nexus between contemporary US populist nationalism and the post-global media ecology through the case of US radio show host and ‘most paranoid man in America’ Alex Jones and his Infowars. It evaluates the role of Alt Right alternative/activist media and global digital platforms in the success of Jones as ideological entrepreneur. To this end, it looks at Jones’ and Infowars' message (mostly Falls Flag conspiracy theories and pseudo-science-meets-popular-culture fantasy), persona as celebrity populist spectacle, business model, political alliances with Alt Right and Trump, audience as diverse mix of believers and ironic spectators and, most of all, media. In particular, we analyse the mix of legacy and social media and their respective role in his rise and alleged downfall. We evaluate Jones’ efforts as effective ideological entrepreneur, pushing his counter-hegemonic ideology from the fringes to the mainstream.

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