The Social Roots of Fears at the Start of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic. An Online Study of the Ethnic Hungarian Population in Romania

The paper addresses the issue of contamination fear within the context of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The everyday lives and feelings of the ethnic Hungarian population in Transylvania, Romania, were investigated with an online survey in the middle of the lockdown, in April 2020. In the search for the socioeconomic and demographic determinants of perceived infection risk, we rely on descriptive and two-variable analysis as well as explanatory regression models controlling for covariates. The results show that respondents perceive public places to hold the highest risk of contamination from the virus. In the article, we also draw the sociodemographic profile of the “fearful” and “brave” attitudes towards the threat represented by the virus. Perceived infection risk is higher for the elderly, the more educated, and the non-religious people. The paper reveals that respondents’ concerns, beyond that of infection, are predominantly economic in character.

Suppression May Improve Adaptation to Worry When Facing Uncertainty: Studying COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with increased uncertainty, fear and worry in everyone's life. The effect of changes in daily life has been studied widely, but we do not know how emotion-regulation strategies influence adaptation to a new situation to help them overcome worry in the face of uncertainty. Here, 1,064 self-selected Farsi speaking participants completed an online battery of questionnaires that measured fear of virus and illness, worry, intolerance of uncertainty, and emotion regulation (two subscales: reappraisal, suppression). We also documented the number of daily COVID-19 cases and deaths due to COVID-19 on the day in which participants completed the questionnaire. Our findings suggest a correlation between contamination fear and the number of daily-confirmed cases (r = 0.11), and the number of reported deaths due to COVID-19 (r = 0.09). Worry mediated the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and fear of virus and illness (b = 0.16, 0.1141 < CI < 0.2113). In addition, suppression moderated the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and worry (p < 0.01). Our results suggest that suppression (at least in the short term) can be an adaptive response to the worry associated with uncertainty. Suppression can reduce worry, which in turn can decrease fear of contamination and improve adaptation to social distancing requirements. Although, the observed correlations were significant, but considering the sample size, they are not strong, and they should be interpreted cautiously.

Students’ Wellbeing during Transition from Onsite to Online Education: Are There Risks Arising from Social Isolation?

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused disruption to activities in many fields, including education and lifestyle. Major changes have taken place in the education system, where specific activities migrated suddenly from onsite to online. As a result, this period has witnessed an increased interest in impact studies that analyse the perceptions of the actors involved in the educational process. Based on the survey data (N = 665), the perceptions of the students in Romanian universities with regard to the effects of online education during the pandemic on their wellbeing were analysed. The empirical apparatus—SEM analysis—reached the following conclusions: the students’ wellbeing was increased under the traditional education system; the economic crisis has caused concern, and a decrease in their wellbeing; their contamination fear is moderate to low, and does not influence their wellbeing; they have been discouraged in terms of their personal development during the pandemic, and their wellbeing has suffered as a result; the role of institutions is extremely important, given that the students’ ability to study online depends on the universities’ efficiency in implementing the online system.

Digital Payment and Its Growth in the Time of COVID – 19

The Indian payments landscape has undergone a makeover in the recent past with the decision to demonetise leading to a shortage of physical currency. The current COVID-19 pandemic created a contamination fear while exchanging and using currency. Hence, the customers started adopting digital payments. Research was conducted in this context to investigate the behaviour intentions of the customers regarding digital payment usage through application of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of the Technology-2 (UTAUT2) model. This paper explores the behaviour intentions of using digital payments during the pandemic. A survey questionnaire was designed to collect the required information from 271 respondents through the judgemental sampling technique. The data were analysed using SPSS and AMOS. The results revealed that, among the seven constructs examined, effort expectancy and habit had a positive effect on behaviour intentions. No association was elicited between social influence, facilitating condition and price value on behaviour intentions. The findings also uncovered a moderately significant negative relationship between performance expectancy and hedonic motivation on behaviour intentions. Compared to prior studies, the findings regarding a few constructs from our study were in line with earlier work, whilst others were found to be not so. Also, the timing of the study might have played a role in influencing the results as most of the customers felt it was convenient to use digital payments compared to physical currency during the pandemic.

Contamination fear and ABS during COVID-19

Purpose Access-based services (ABS) have been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to validate customer barriers to ABS focusing on the contamination barrier. As service employees’ presence violates the COVID-19 physical distancing norms and heightens contamination fear, this paper tests its effects on continued use intentions of ABS. This study also empirically examines the role of conspicuous virtue signaling and organizational response. Design/methodology/approach The study was conducted in the context of scooter sharing and uses a mixed-method to explore the relatively under-researched problem of contamination fear in ABS. Study one uses the survey method and study two uses a 2 × 2 matrix between-subject design. Findings The results reveal that perceptions of resource sufficiency positively affect continued use intentions of ABS. The presence of a service employee hurts continued use intentions. Further, there are a three-way interaction between ABS type (service employee presence/absence), organizational response (solution-oriented/general information) and resource sufficiency perceptions. Organizational response mitigates the negative effect of service employee presence on the link between resource adequacy perceptions and ABS continued use intentions. Originality/value In contrast with prior research, this study shows that contamination fear invokes protection motivation, resulting in better preparedness and continued use intentions of ABS. The predicted difference is primarily between customers who attribute responsibility and ABS type differently (presence/absence of service employee). This study also explores the role of organizational response to COVID-19.

Assessment of virtual reality as an anxiety and disgust provoking tool: The use of VR exposure in individuals with high contamination fear

Preliminary studies have provided promising results on the feasibility of virtual reality (VR) interventions for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. The present study investigated whether VR scenarios that were developed for contamination concerns evoke anxiety, disgust, and the urge to wash in individuals with high (n = 33) and low (n = 33) contamination fear. In addition, the feasibility of VR exposure in inducing disgust was examined through testing the mediator role of disgust in the relationship between contamination anxiety and the urge to wash. Participants were immersed in virtual scenarios with varying degrees of dirtiness and rated their level of anxiety, disgust, and the urge to wash after performing the virtual tasks. Data were collected between September and December 2019. The participants with high contamination fear reported higher contamination-related ratings than those with low contamination fear. The significant main effect of dirtiness indicated that anxiety and disgust levels increased with increasing overall dirtiness of the virtual scenarios in both high and low contamination fear groups. Moreover, disgust elicited by VR mediated the relationship between contamination fear and the urge to wash. The findings demonstrated the feasibility of VR in eliciting emotional responses that are necessary for conducting exposure in individuals with high contamination fear. In conclusion, VR can be used as an alternative exposure tool in the treatment of contamination-based OCD.

Positive impact of COVID-19 outbreak on the treatment of contamination fear in obsessive-compulsive patients in Armenia

Objective: To observe the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on patients with contamination fear at obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and how this can be used to improve psychotherapeutic treatment. Materials and methods: 33 patients were involved, divided into 2 groups, in one of which we used additional experimental features of psychotherapy. OCD total condition and separate symptoms were assessed using Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS). Results: Patients, included in Group A, showed significantly better improvement in both total Y-BOCS score, as well as in particular symptoms connected with so-called mental contamination. Conclusions: Adding reality-based and emotionally significant features of contamination control and prevention to standard cognitive-behavioral therapy protocol may seriously improve outcomes in the treatment of mental contamination obsessions. The period of pandemics, as well as post-pandemic, can be used for intense further research in this area in a larger selection of patients. Long-term follow-up is recommended to clarify the stability of positive changes.