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BackgroundThe current COVID-19 pandemic is showing negative effects on human health as well as on social and economic life. It is a critical and challenging task to revive public life while minimizing the risk of infection. Reducing interactions between people by social distancing is an effective and prevalent measure to reduce the risk of infection and spread of the virus within a community. Current developments in several countries show that this measure can be technologically accompanied by mobile apps; meanwhile, privacy concerns are being intensively discussed. ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to examine central cognitive variables that may constitute people’s motivations for social distancing, using an app, and providing health-related data requested by two apps that differ in their direct utility for the individual user. The results may increase our understanding of people’s concerns and convictions, which can then be specifically addressed by public-oriented communication strategies and appropriate political decisions. MethodsThis study refers to the protection motivation theory, which is adaptable to both health-related and technology-related motivations. The concept of social trust was added. The quantitative survey included answers from 406 German-speaking participants who provided assessments of data security issues, trust components, and the processes of threat and coping appraisal related to the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection by social distancing. With respect to apps, one central focus was on the difference between a contact tracing app and a data donation app. ResultsMultiple regression analyses showed that the present model could explain 55% of the interindividual variance in the participants’ motivation for social distancing, 46% for using a contact tracing app, 42% for providing their own infection status to a contact tracing app, and 34% for using a data donation app. Several cognitive components of threat and coping appraisal were related to motivation measurements. Trust in other people’s social distancing behavior and general trust in official app providers also played important roles; however, the participants’ age and gender did not. Motivations for using and accepting a contact tracing app were higher than those for using and accepting a data donation app. ConclusionsThis study revealed some important cognitive factors that constitute people’s motivation for social distancing and using apps to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Concrete implications for future research, public-oriented communication strategies, and appropriate political decisions were identified and are discussed.

Due to its prominent role in online social networks, avatar creation has become an important research topic in the field of computer-mediated communication. One main motive for creating avatars is the representation of one's own identity. Previous research indicates that avatar creation depends on the activity context for which the avatar is created. Though, studies comparing avatar creation for a wide variety of activity contexts are still missing. The present study addresses this empirical gap by examining (1) the self-representation of physical, demographical, and personality characteristics through avatars, (2) differences in self-representation between various online activity contexts, and (3) between-participant variance in ascribed personality traits. Participants attributed physical, demographical, and personality characteristics to their avatar for one of six online activity contexts and indicated the same characteristics for their actual and ideal selves. We analysed the data of 568 participants and found a high level of congruence between demographical/physical characteristics of the avatar, the actual self, and the ideal self. Furthermore, we found an idealised representation of the avatar's personality traits, which was affected by the specific activity context. Last, the between-participant variance in the avatar's personality traits was mainly larger than the variance in the ideal self but smaller than the variance in the actual self, indicating a link between avatar creation and social norms. These results deliver new insights into the strategies behind avatar creation in different contexts and build a basis for future research and practical implications for developers and designers of virtual worlds., Author(s): Daniel Zimmermann [sup.1] , Anna Wehler [sup.1] , Kai Kaspar [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.6190.e, 0000 0000 8580 3777, Department of Psychology, University of Cologne, , Herbert-Lewin-Straße 10, 50931, [...]

Despite many known educational benefits of digital game-based learning, teaching with digital games is not yet a common practice in formal education. The role that digital game-based learning might play in future school teaching can be explored by examining the behavioral intentions of pre-service teachers as the ultimate gatekeepers. In this survey study, 402 pre-service teachers from German-speaking universities had participated. Multiple regression analyses were applied to examine the role of pre-service teachers' personal characteristics in their intention to integrate digital games into two educational contexts. For both educational contexts, we identified perceived usefulness and curriculum relatedness of digital games as key factors in pre-service teachers' intention to teach with digital games. We also found differences in explained variance and relevant personal characteristics between educational contexts. Overall, we discuss how teaching with digital games could become a common practice if particular characteristics of pre-service teachers are already addressed in teacher education.

Holding companies accountable for their decisions' environmental side effects becomes increasingly important in the light of current debates on the climate crisis. The present study investigated a young sample's (n = 925) causal and moral responsibility attributions to a company's manager and their subordinate employee, who were either young or middle-aged. The agents jointly made a profit-oriented decision which either harmed or helped the environment. Results were analyzed with respect to the valence of the side effect, the agents' social role, the agents' age group, and participants' affective state. We successfully replicated findings from prior studies, showing that more intention and moral responsibility is ascribed to the manager in case of a negative side effect than in case of a positive side effect, and that the manager deserves more blame for negative side effects than the employee, whereas the employee deserves more praise for positive side effects. Additionally, responsibility attributions varied with the agents' age group, participants' positive and negative affective state, and participants' gender. By incorporating these hitherto neglected factors, the study complements existing theories of responsibility attribution and intergroup perception. The findings further highlight the contribution of affective mechanisms as driving factors of responsibility attributions. Combining moral responsibility research, intergroup research, and affective measures promises to foster the understanding of how and to whom people ascribe blame, praise, and causal responsibility for environmental consequences., Author(s): Kiara Roth [sup.1] [sup.2] , Kai Kaspar [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.10253.35, 0000 0004 1936 9756, Philipps-University of Marburg, , Marburg, Germany (2) grid.6190.e, 0000 0000 8580 3777, University [...]

The roles of YouTube videos and YouTubers for getting information about political and societal topics are becoming gradually more important to young people. Quantitative research about young people's use and perception of YouTube-videos and their potential effects on opinion formation is sparse though. This cross-sectional quantitative study addresses this empirical gap. We examined young people's analytic-critical evaluations of YouTubers and their videos about political and societal topics (YTPS-videos), and how these are affected by the young people's age and gender. We analysed questionnaire data of 562 participants and divided them into three different age groups. Overall, the participants reported a moderate watching frequency of YTPS-videos. They also rated YTPS-videos as moderately credible and considered specific characteristics of YTPS-videos and their producers as being moderately indicative for fake news. When comparing to traditional TV news, YTPS-videos were perceived as more entertaining, emotional, funny, exciting, modern, and motivating but also as more subjective and manipulating. Regarding YouTubers, the participants ascribed them an important role model function, but criticised them for handling it rather irresponsibly. Concerning opinion formation processes, the participants reported of a rather unimportant role of YTPS-videos for their learning about political and societal topics. They also perceived themselves as less influenceable than other peers and younger people. Still, they prefer talking with friends instead of teachers about YTPS-videos. Age and gender also had effects on various scales. These results deliver essential data for future research and educational measures and opened up unexplored areas in this research field., Author(s): Daniel Zimmermann [sup.1] , Christian Noll [sup.2] , Lars Gräßer [sup.3] , Kai-Uwe Hugger [sup.2] , Lea Marie Braun [sup.2] , Tine Nowak [sup.2] , Kai Kaspar [sup.1] Author [...]

E-learning projects and related research generate an increasing amount of evidence within and across various disciplines and contexts. The field is very heterogeneous as e-learning approaches are often characterized by rather unique combinations of situational factors that guide the design and realization of e-learning in a bottom-up fashion. Comprehensive theories of e-learning that allow deductive reasoning and hence a more top-down strategy are missing so far, but they are highly desirable. In view of the current situation, inductive reasoning is the prevalent way of scientific progress in e-learning research and the first step toward theory development: individual projects provide the insights necessary to gradually build up comprehensive theories and models. In this context, comparability and generalizability of project results are the keys to success. Here we propose a new model--the "E-Learning Setting Circle"--that will promote comparability and generalizability of project results by structuring, standardizing, and guiding e-learning approaches at the level of a general research methodology. The model comprises three clusters--context setting, structure setting, and content setting--each of which comprises three individual issues that are not necessarily sequential but frequently encountered in e-learning projects. Two further elements are incorporated: on the one hand, we delineate the central role of objective setting and the assessment of the goal attainment level (guiding element); on the other hand, we highlight the importance of multi-criteria decision-making (universal element). Overall, the proposed circular model is a strategic framework intended to foster theory development in the area of e-learning projects and research.

Numerous reviews have synthesized the empirical research on the effectiveness of teacher education, highlighting teacher education effectiveness research (TEER) as an emerging research paradigm. Our systematic search identified 27 reviews related to TEER, wherein teacher education is broadly understood as comprising all stages of teacher professionalization—namely, initial teacher education, teacher induction, and teacher professional development. In reviewing these reviews, we carry out a synthesis of existing research on TEER. Guided by four research questions (RQ), we focused major frameworks (RQ1), outcome measures (RQ2), processes (RQ3), and central research gaps (RQ4). Highlights: Only few reviews provide a background or macro framing, whereas most reviews apply TEER for examining a specific topic (RQ1); outcome measures often relate to the notion of teacher competence, making increased competence the true outcome of TEER (RQ2); coursework is the most dominant category of characteristics-forming processes (RQ3); the frameworks underlying the outcome measures appear to be an object of criticism on a theoretical but even more on a methodological level. Building on these findings, we suggest a processes-and-criteria classification (PCC) grounded in basic distinctions of the various studies synthesized by the reviews. We discuss perspectives on how this classification may provide an orientation for future TEER studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facebook started as a platform intended for connecting people but it has developed into a rich information source. Based on the uses-and-gratification approach, we examined to what extent censorship endorsement and personality factors can explain information seeking behavior on Facebook. 1525 German-speaking Facebook users participated in a cross-sectional survey. Censorship endorsement, three personality traits (extraversion, neuroticism, and openness), age, and gender served as predictors in blockwise regression models. Participants' information seeking behavior on Facebook served as the criterion variable, whereby we examined different behavioral strategies. Overall, the extent of one's endorsement of censorship was positively and reliably related to different facets of information seeking. Apparently, censorship might be considered a protection measure to establish a decent communication and information space. In contrast, personality traits were inconsistently related to different facets of information seeking. Extraversion and neuroticism were positively related to information seeking in general, but their impact was absent on some subscales. The effects of age and gender differed from what has been found in previous studies. Overall, the results highlight the necessity of a more differentiated perspective on social media use, provide implications for uses-and-gratification research in the context of social media, and indicate interesting venues for future research by incorporating censorship attitude as a hitherto neglected factor., Author(s): Kai Kaspar [sup.1] , Moritz Müller-Jensen [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.6190.e, 0000 0000 8580 3777, Department of Psychology, University of Cologne, , Richard-Strauss-Str. 2, 50931, Cologne, Germany Introduction Today's [...]

While the acquisition of three or more languages becomes steadily more important in modern societies, the underlying cognitive and linguistic processes of multi-linguistic language acquisition are not well understood. This study investigates how a formerly acquired second language (L2) can facilitate the acquisition of a third language (L3). Thirty-two native German speakers with proficient knowledge in either a tonal L2 (Chinese) or a non-tonal L2 (English) learned vocabulary of a tonal L3 (Thai), while the information of the target L3 was either presented visually or both visually and auditorily. Additional auditory information improved later recognition of L3 vocabulary for participants with a tonal L2 (Chinese) but not for those with a non-tonal L2 (English). These results suggest that the L2 to L3 learning transfer can be improved when the similarities between both languages, such as tonal information, are accentuated in the learning process., Author(s): Moritz Köster [sup.1], Caspar Mathias Goeke [sup.2], Bongkoch Goeke [sup.3], Thomas Hoffmann [sup.4], Kai Kaspar [sup.5] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.14095.39, 0000 0000 9116 4836, Department of Cross-Cultural Developmental Psychology, [...]

Previous studies showed that physical cleansing affects moral judgments and that even the activation of cleanliness-related cognitions is sufficient to produce such effects. We investigated whether hand cleansing (Study 1, n = 119) or a cleanliness visualization task (Study 2, n = 683) affect the self-assessed likelihood of committing morally good and bad actions in the future. We included participants' gender and subjective vitality as covariates in the analyses. We found that hand cleansing reduced the likelihood of committing morally bad actions (Study 1), whereas in Study 2 the effect of the cleanliness treatment showed a significant but small interaction with participants' involvement in the cleanliness treatment. The effects indicate a context-dependent tendency for behavioral consistency or moral licensing. Moreover, we found evidence for mediation processes in Study 1, but not in Study 2: The reported likelihood of committing morally bad actions in the future mediated the effect of the cleanliness treatment on one's self-assessed moral character. Overall, the present results support a functional link between physical purity and moral behavior but also highlight specific functional constraints., Author(s): Kai Kaspar [sup.1] , Lena Teschlade [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0000 8580 3777, grid.6190.e, Department of Psychology, University of Cologne, , Richard-Strauss-Str. 2, 50931, Cologne, Germany Physical cleansing [...]