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Dealing with COVID-19 and with the preventative measures that have been taken to mitigate the transmission of the virus causing the pandemic has posed a great challenge to the population. While psychologists have expertise with regard to preventive behavior change and to dealing with the mental health impact of measures, their expertise needs to be effectively communicated to the public. Mass media play a critical role in times of crisis, in many cases being the only source of information. While most research focuses on the importance of information content as a factor affecting psychological responses to a collective traumatic event, the way information is framed in the media is likely to influence the way health professionals are perceived as trustworthy. This study aimed to analyze the media framing of information from psychology during the COVID-19 pandemic in six countries from America and Europe, identifying the most recurrent topics in the news (n news items = 541) related to psychology and mental health. In all six countries the media address the psychological needs of the population, which vary depending on the imposed restrictions. The news content is influenced by the scientific sources used by the media. While the most prevalent topics focus on psychological risk and the need to seek mental health care, the least prevalent topics relate to counseling and behavioral guidelines for managing the psychological consequences of the pandemic. The study findings provide insight into how psychological knowledge contributes to the understanding and mitigation of COVID-19 consequences in different countries and identified fields where psychologists were consulted to respond to a health emergency. They also show a preference to consult other experts when searching for contextual or more macro-social explanations of critical situation.

La Comisión de la Verdad en Colombia se estableció a partir del modelo de justicia transicional. Su función es servir como medida de reconocimiento de los hechos violentos durante el conflicto armado, que han dejado más de nueve millones de víctimas. En este marco, se realizó un estudio descriptivo correlacional (N=1166) con una muestra de 22 departamentos del país para evaluar el conocimiento, la aprobación y la efectividad percibida de los primeros años de la Comisión a partir de aspectos psicosociales: victimización, emociones colectivas, reconciliación, memoria colectiva. El 58% eran víctimas directas. Los resultados indican altos niveles de aprobación y de disposición a participar en las actividades de la Comisión, así como cierto escepticismo sobre su utilidad y una baja confianza en las disculpas oficiales de los grupos en conflicto. También se encuentra un alto índice de emociones positivas relacionadas con la comisión y una baja confianza en las instituciones gubernamentales. Lo encontrado en este estudio, coincide con experiencias previas de comisiones de la verdad en Latinoamérica, y abre el debate sobre las especificidades del contexto colombiano en la búsqueda de paz y las implicaciones del trabajo de la comisión en el proceso de reparación.

This paper analyzes the socio-cognitive and emotional processes related to collective action in the context of the 2019 populist social movement in Chile. It proposes an integrative explanation of populism as social movements and collective gatherings along with their relation with creativity and social representations of mass movements. A comprehensive online survey was used (n = 262) that included measures of participation in demonstrations, identification with protesters or the government, agreement with social movement grievances, collective efficacy, perceived emotional synchrony, collective action, self-reported cognitive creativity, and individuals’ proposals for improvement of society and ideas associated with stimuli (e.g., the concepts of majority or minority). Our results revealed that identification with demonstrators, agreement with protesters’ grievances, a high perceived emotional synchrony or collective effervescence, and higher creativity responses were associated with an active participation in the social movement. Higher participation and factors conducive to participation were associated with lexical clusters of responses to stimuli that include words such as rights, justice, injustice, bravery, dignity, or hope, which were conceived of as positive social representations of the populist social movement. These findings are discussed within the neo-Durkheimian framework of collective gatherings and the perspective of populism as a social movement that seeks to renew and expand democracy.

8 March (8M), now known as International Women’s Day, is a day for feminist claims where demonstrations are organized in over 150 countries, with the participation of millions of women all around the world. These demonstrations can be viewed as collective rituals and thus focus attention on the processes that facilitate different psychosocial effects. This work aims to explore the mechanisms (i.e., behavioral and attentional synchrony, perceived emotional synchrony, and positive and transcendent emotions) involved in participation in the demonstrations of 8 March 2020, collective and ritualized feminist actions, and their correlates associated with personal well-being (i.e., affective well-being and beliefs of personal growth) and collective well-being (i.e., social integration variables: situated identity, solidarity and fusion), collective efficacy and collective growth, and behavioral intention to support the fight for women’s rights. To this end, a cross-cultural study was conducted with the participation of 2,854 people (age 18–79; M = 30.55; SD = 11.66) from countries in Latin America (Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador) and Europe (Spain and Portugal), with a retrospective correlational cross-sectional design and a convenience sample. Participants were divided between demonstration participants (n = 1,271; 94.0% female) and non-demonstrators or followers who monitored participants through the media and social networks (n = 1,583; 75.87% female). Compared with non-demonstrators and with males, female and non-binary gender respondents had greater scores in mechanisms and criterion variables. Further random-effects model meta-analyses revealed that the perceived emotional synchrony was consistently associated with more proximal mechanisms, as well as with criterion variables. Finally, sequential moderation analyses showed that proposed mechanisms successfully mediated the effects of participation on every criterion variable. These results indicate that participation in 8M marches and demonstrations can be analyzed through the literature on collective rituals. As such, collective participation implies positive outcomes both individually and collectively, which are further reinforced through key psychological mechanisms, in line with a Durkheimian approach to collective rituals.

Analizar las actitudes implícitas de estudiantes universitarios con respecto al perdón hacia exmiembros de grupos guerrilleros y grupos paramilitares en el marco del conflicto armado colombiano. Método. En Bogotá, 30 estudiantes universitarios respondieron a la prueba de asociación implícita (IAT), la cual mide actitudes implícitas, al utilizar las latencias de respuesta para medir la fuerza de la asociación entre diversos conceptos, y un cuestionario explícito relacionado con el perdón. Este análisis se hizo a la luz de la teoría de marcos relacionales, derivada del contextualismo funcional. Resultados. Las respuestas de los estudiantes permitieron observar una mayor asociación entre los conceptos de perdón y guerrilla, indicando que podría haber una mayor disposición a perdonar a exmiembros de este grupo armado en el contexto actual que vive el país. Conclusión. Esta investigación abre la posibilidad de explorar el tema del perdón en el posconflicto, incluyendo variables como la posición política, la edad y la experiencia frente a la guerra, desde una perspectiva conductual contemporánea.