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CREATING CONSPIRACY BELIEFS: How Our Thoughts Are Shaped by Dolores Albarracín et al. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2022. 308 pages. Paperback; $39.99. ISBN: 9781108965026. *Conspiracy thinking is a prominent topic of discussion in American life today--and Christians, with their concern for truth, should not only be informed about, but contributing to, this discussion. This includes awareness of how scholars in the neuro-psychological and social sciences are contributing to our understanding of the nature of conspiracy thinking. *This book investigates the causes of conspiracy thinking in the United States. Its authors draw their findings from existing social scientific literature on conspiracism, general social psychology research, and six empirical statistical studies conducted during the last two years of the Trump presidency (2019-2021): three cross-sectional online surveys, a longitudinal phone panel survey on "deep state" conspiracy claims, a "manipulation" of fear experiment on the alleged relationship between the COVID-19 virus and 5G technology, and a social media study of Twitter hashtags and "fear words." *This book shares many similarities with previous academic works on conspiracy thinking--for example, Hofstadter (1965), Pipes (1997), Robins and Post (1997), Sunstein and Vermeule (2008), Barkun (2013), and Uscinski and Parent (2014)--but distinguishes itself by relying extensively on recent polling data and statistics instead of interviews, case studies, newspaper op-eds, or conspiracist media. Indeed, the authors consciously dispute psychological works that scrutinize the personality traits and life experiences of conspiracy believers, and political science works that link conspiracy fears to power asymmetries. Such approaches, they contend, insufficiently explain the process through which conspiracy beliefs are spread. They argue, instead, that psychological and political factors are themselves shaped by a mixture of personal, media, and social media contacts. *Their central aim is thus to examine how patterns of media consumption shape conspiracy beliefs, habits that are themselves affected by one's pre-existing feelings of anxiety, which is herein defined as a nonspecific "perception of threat [that] depends on relatively stable psychological motivations of belief defense [the desire to maintain a coherent set of beliefs], belief accuracy [the desire to maintain a realistic view of the world], and social integration [the desire for trust, status, and acceptance within a group], as well as sociopolitical factors and situational factors like communications and media exposure" (p. 163). *When these needs are not met, anxiety rises. But whereas desire for belief accuracy produces, on its own, an increase in critical discernment--and hence a decrease in false conspiracy beliefs--the combination of pre-existing anxiety (e.g., feelings of ostracism) with shared conspiracy narratives increases one's predisposition to believe conspiracy claims. When one's need for closure and community trumps their need for belief accuracy, new information will be interpreted in ways that justify their emotional state and existing beliefs. The emotional turmoil and social discomfort of anxious individuals make them more prone to accept conspiracist interpretations for troubling situations, drawing them into an alternative "media ecosystem." *Assent to conspiracy claims occurs when anxiety is assuaged by theories that offer plausible and unfalsifiable "proofs" of "hidden hand" driving events. Plausibility is achieved when a theory offers the believer historic similarity (similar plots occurred in the past), psychological similarity (the enemy's alleged motive is conceivable), and normative plausibility (other members of one's community share the same belief). The unfalsifiable nature of conspiracy claims lies in their assertion that proofs of a nefarious plot have been hidden or destroyed by the conspirators; such claims dovetail with the believer's existing distrust of authoritative sources of information. The repetition of conspiracist messages by like-minded others (friends, social networks, etc.), and by popular media (e.g., Fox News) reinforces these beliefs. The believer's wounded ego can further elicit schizotypy, paranoia, and narcissism, which serve as means of self-defence against debunkers and skeptics. *The influence of various media is proportional to time spent with, and trust placed in, these sources of information, along with the consumer's prior levels of neuroticism, suspiciousness, and impulsivity. Online media have an additional influence via their use of bots, individually tailored algorithms, and various forms of "information laundering" in reply threads and chatrooms. Heavy media consumption aligns the consumer's view of the world with the one shown in their preferred media. *The prime contribution of this book is its postulation that anxiety precedes conspiracy thinking (rather than the inverse), a psychological explanation for conspiracy belief that does not lead its authors to conclude, as others have, that conspiracism is inherently a form of neurosis. However, its heavy use of statistics, jargon, and unduly complicated flowcharts renders the text onerous, especially for those without statistical training. Given that this is meant to be the book's most 'important new input into the literature, it is also its greatest weakness. *Despite the great efforts made by its authors to produce a detailed empirical study of the effects of media on conspiracy beliefs, the book's conclusions are somewhat underwhelming as they echo the findings of many previous studies and offer few new insights into the topic. For instance, their claim that social interaction is the "proverbial elephant in the room" (pp. xiii, 205) is hardly convincing. The media consumption habits of conspiracy believers are a recurring theme throughout the literature, and none make the claim that conspiracy beliefs develop in an information vacuum. The book's conclusion that anxiety serves as an "intervening mechanism" (p. 87) between conspiracy claims and a person's needs for closure and social integration in not particularly revelatory either. That humans are social animals is an argument as old as Aristotle, and that conspiracy myths help insecure individuals improve their sense of social cohesion is at least as old as Karl Popper's "conspiracy theory of society."1 *The book's statistical data also exhibits several flaws, leading its authors to wrongly conclude, as Hofstadter did in 1965, that the phenomenon of conspiracy thinking is essentially a product of conservative angst2--a claim that has been powerfully disproven by many of Hofstadter's critics. This may be due to the timeframe of the authors' research studies, which were conducted mostly during and after President Trump's first impeachment trial (in 2019-2020), which elicited a massive conservative media backlash. It could also be due to their failure to examine long-term patterns of conspiracy chatter, which would have shown (see Uscinski and Parent, 2014) that conspiracy ideation ebbs and flows along political lines over longer periods of time. Their data also contains some unrepresentative samples, namely, the overrepresentation of low-wage earners, the unemployed, and the highly educated, and the underrepresentation of working-class high school graduates and Hispanics (pp. 243-44). *One could surmise that such flaws are due to an extraordinary historical context (the Trump presidency and COVID-19 restrictions), but they are also likely attributable to the implicit political biases of current social psychological research, which, as Duarte et al. demonstrated,3 is strongly skewed to the political left. This is made evident in the authors' clearly stated opinion that conservative media is the primary cause of conspiracy beliefs and related violence (pp. 224, 169-70) from which its audience--akin to cultists and terrorists--should be deprogrammed with "corrective alternatives" and ridicule (p. 215). This seems to contradict their 'primary claim that anxiety is the underlying cause (and not the product) of conspiracy beliefs, which should presumably be allayed with kinder methods than these. By identifying conspiracy theories as both a product of right-wing media and, simultaneously, as a "type of misinformation" (p. 11), the authors leave themselves open to the charge of circular reasoning. Indeed, their political bias is shown in their frequent use of contested progressive concepts and phrases such as "racialized," "Latinx," "pro-social behavior to reduce [one's] carbon footprint," and by 'connecting peaceable conservative media such as Focus on the Family to the use of gun violence by Edgar Maddison Welch in a Washington pizzeria (p. 219). *The small number of conspiracy theories on which the authors based their surveys is another example of skewed sampling. Most of these represent themes that cause far more anxiety to conservatives than liberals (for example, the "deep state," COVID-19 restrictions, illegal immigration, President Obama's birth certificate), while little attention is given to conspiracy theories that traditionally appeal to the political left (for 'example, JFK, 9/11, GMOs, "BigPharma," CIA malfeasance, Hurricane Katrina) or to progressives' fears about policing, systemic racism, abortion rights, or gender identity, making it all the more likely that their research subjects who displayed conspiracist thinking stood on the right side of the political fence. *Finally, the book spends too much time discussing tangentially pertinent psychological research (for example, the influence of music on pain and imitative suicide) and too little detailing the content and origins of the few conspiracy theories their research is based on (with the exception of the 2016 "Pizzagate" panic). This makes the book difficult for the layperson to follow, when it is compared to academic works such as those of Barkun4 or Uscinski and Parent,5 which are accessible to a nonspecialized audience. Few details are given, for instance, of the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, which are mentioned frequently but never in detail as an example of a genuine government conspiracy (rather than a significant but nonsinister breach of medical ethics). In the end, the book complements the rest of the literature but falls short of providing significant new insights, and is unlikely to elicit interest among laypersons, especially those who hold conspiracy beliefs. * Notes *1Karl R. Popper, Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1963). *2Richard Hofstadter, The Paranoid Style in American Politics, And Other Essays (New York: Knopf, 1965). *3José L. Duarte et al., "Political Diversity Will Improve Social Psychological Science," Behavioral and Brain Sciences 38 (2015): e130, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X14000430. *4Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2013). *5Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent, American Conspiracy Theories (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2014). *Reviewed by Michel Jacques Gagné, Champlain College, St. Lambert, QC J4P 3P2. Michel is a historian and author of Thinking Critically about the Kennedy Assassination: Debunking the Myths and Conspiracy Theories (Routledge, 2022).

This study investigated the association between interest in Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) in the US using Google Health Trends as a source of big data and state policy variables of Medicaid expansions under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and initiation of PrEP Assistance Programs (PrEP-AP). As of December 2019, thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have accepted federal Medicaid funding provided through the ACA to expand eligibility to low-income adults. Among these expansion states, eight states also implemented PrEP-AP, a program that finances PrEP. A difference-in-differences approach estimated how changes in Google search for PrEP before and after the expansion differed across expansion and non-expansion states. Analyses also gauged whether the magnitude of the correlation between Medicaid expansions and Google searches was higher in states that also initiated PrEP-AP. Findings indicated that the Medicaid expansions were associated with a higher share of Google searches for PrEP keywords ( β = 1.536 , S.E. =.36, p .001 ). Moreover, the magnitude of correlation for some keywords was higher in states that also implemented PrEP-APs.

To mitigate the opioid epidemic, a concerted effort to educate, prevent, diagnose, treat, and engage residents is required. In this study, a digitally distributed method to form a large network of organizations was tested with 99 counties in regions with high vulnerability to hepatitis C virus (HCV). The method involved a cascade of contacts going from email to phone calls, to videoconferencing and measuring the number of contacts required, amount of time taken, and the proportion of success at recruiting at least one community organization per county. A recruitment period of 5 months and 2118 contact attempts led to the recruitment of organizations from 73 out of our 99 target counties. Organizations belonging to health departments required more attempts and time to recruit but ultimately enrolled at higher rates than did other organizations such as coalitions and agencies. Organizations from counties more (vs. less) vulnerable to HCV outbreaks required more attempts to recruit and, using multiple recruitment methods (e.g., emails, phone calls, and Zoom meetings), improved enrollment success. Overall, this method proved to be successful at remotely engaging a large-scale network of communities with different levels of risk within a large geographic region.

The stability of default effects to contextual features is critical to their use in policy. In this paper, decision time was investigated as a contextual factor that may pose limits on the efficacy of defaults. Consistent with the hypothesis that time constraints may increase reliance on contextual cues, four experiments, including a preregistered one of a nationally representative sample, and a meta-analysis that included four additional pilot experiments, indicated that short decision times increased the advantage of action defaults (i.e., the default option automatically endorsed the desired behavior) and that the default advantage was trivial or nonexistent when decision times were longer. These effects replicated for naturalistic as well as externally induced decision times and were present even when participants were unaware that time was limited. This research has critical implications for psychological science and allied disciplines concerned with policy in the domains of public health, finance and economics, marketing, and environmental sciences.

We conducted a preregistered multilaboratory project ( k = 36; N = 3,531) to assess the size and robustness of ego-depletion effects using a novel replication method, termed the paradigmatic replication approach. Each laboratory implemented one of two procedures that was intended to manipulate self-control and tested performance on a subsequent measure of self-control. Confirmatory tests found a nonsignificant result ( d = 0.06). Confirmatory Bayesian meta-analyses using an informed-prior hypothesis (δ = 0.30, SD = 0.15) found that the data were 4 times more likely under the null than the alternative hypothesis. Hence, preregistered analyses did not find evidence for a depletion effect. Exploratory analyses on the full sample (i.e., ignoring exclusion criteria) found a statistically significant effect ( d = 0.08); Bayesian analyses showed that the data were about equally likely under the null and informed-prior hypotheses. Exploratory moderator tests suggested that the depletion effect was larger for participants who reported more fatigue but was not moderated by trait self-control, willpower beliefs, or action orientation.

We conducted a preregistered multilaboratory project (k = 36; N = 3,531) to assess the size and robustness of ego-depletion effects using a novel replication method, termed the paradigmatic replication approach. Each laboratory implemented one of two procedures that was intended to manipulate self-control and tested performance on a subsequent measure of self-control. Confirmatory tests found a nonsignificant result (d = 0.06). Confirmatory Bayesian meta-analyses using an informed-prior hypothesis (δ = 0.30, SD = 0.15) found that the data were 4 times more likely under the null than the alternative hypothesis. Hence, preregistered analyses did not find evidence for a depletion effect. Exploratory analyses on the full sample (i.e., ignoring exclusion criteria) found a statistically significant effect (d = 0.08); Bayesian analyses showed that the data were about equally likely under the null and informed-prior hypotheses. Exploratory moderator tests suggested that the depletion effect was larger for participants who reported more fatigue but was not moderated by trait self-control, willpower beliefs, or action orientation.

Background Although influenza vaccination can prevent influenza-related deaths, uptake remains low, particularly in disadvantaged populations. Purpose A theoretical model of psychological pathways to vaccination accounting for the direct and moderating role of socio-structural factors was tested. The study sought to understand the joint contributions of psychological (i.e., knowledge, attitudes, and intention) and socio-structural factors (i.e., income, education, and insurance) to influenza vaccination, prospectively. Methods A nationally representative empaneled sample of over 3,000 U.S. adults answered questions about vaccination knowledge, attitudes, and intentions, as well as actual vaccination across five timepoints from September 2018 to May 2019. Socio-structural factors were examined as moderators. Results Findings revealed strong positive associations between knowledge and attitudes, attitudes and intentions, as well as intentions and subsequent vaccination. Importantly, health insurance moderated the associations between attitudes and intentions and between intentions and vaccination, such that those without insurance had weaker associations between attitudes and intentions and between intentions and vaccination. In addition, education moderated the path from knowledge to attitude and from intentions to vaccination, such that people with lower educational attainment had weaker associations between knowledge and attitudes and between intentions and vaccination. Conclusions Socio-structural factors act as barriers to the influence of knowledge on attitudes, attitudes on intentions, and intentions on behavior. Future research needs to be mindful of the specific paths disrupted by social disadvantages and examine ways to intervene to decrease those effects.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this meta-analysis was to examine the success of multiple-behavior interventions and to identify whether the efficacy of such programs depends on the number of recommendations prescribed and the type of outcomes measured. METHOD We conducted a synthesis of 136 research reports (N = 59,330) using a robust variance estimate model (Tanner-Smith et al., 2016) to study change between baseline and the first follow-up across multiple-behavior interventions, single-behavior interventions, and passive controls. RESULTS Multiple-behavior interventions were more efficacious than their single-behavior counterparts (multiple-behaviors: d = .44 [95% confidence interval, CI [.27, .60]); single-behavior: d = .21 [95% CI [.00, .43]), with efficacy varying based on the type of outcomes measured. Publication bias analysis revealed a small asymmetry but controlling for it did not eliminate these effects. There was a strong linear relation between the number of recommendations prescribed by an intervention and intervention efficacy (B = .07, SE = .01, p < .001), with strongest improvements observed for interventions making five or more recommendations. These patterns remained when controlling for other intervention and population characteristics. CONCLUSIONS Multiple-behavior interventions are successful in the HIV domain and increasing the number of recommendations made in the intervention generally maximizes improvements. These findings provide insights that may guide the design and implementation of integrated interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

If conspiracy beliefs were an individual process, no conspiracy theory would be alike. Instead, these beliefs are promoted by individuals or social groups through the media or informal channels of communication, leading to identical beliefs being espoused by different people and social groups. This paper reviews the role of the social influence as a basis for conspiracy beliefs and describes the role of legacy media, discussions with others, and social media, as well as the underlying informational and normative mechanisms. The role of trust is also considered, including how trust in science can increase vulnerability to conspiracy theories by opening audiences up to the influence of pseudo-scientists. Mitigating the impact of these influences will require research attention to processes that go beyond correction, elucidating the interpersonal consequences of corrections within contemporary information wars.

Several failures to replicate underpowered priming studies conducted by social psychologists in the 2000s have been used to argue that priming effects on behavior cannot be reproduced (Harris, Cobu...

The recent exchange about implicit attitudes is an acute reminder of the need to pay research attention to the correlation between implicit attitudes and overt behavior. Current implicit measures are excellent to detect evaluatively relevant associations arising from specific and variable internal states and predict judgments when people lack the motivation and ability to control those judgments. However, there is no convincing evidence of a strong correlation between such implicit attitudes and overt behavior when people's ability and motivation to control the influence of these attitudes is low. Researchers should improve implicit measures by better integrating action, target, level, and context into the measurement procedures and then reexamine if these improved measures predict socially undesirable behaviors when ability and motivation to control behavior are low. This article is categorized under: PsychologyTheory and Methods NeuroscienceBehavior NeuroscienceCognition.

Since the 1940s, persuasion processes and the resistance to such processes have been extensively studied, becoming integral components within society affecting everyday life from of marketing and advertising to politics to health. Persuasion and its resistance naturally stemmed from research on attitudes and their formation. The process by which people can form attitudes is either through individual processes or persuasion processes. Regardless of if attitudes are already held, they can either follow along the persuasion process or resist it. Persuasion and its resistance occur for the same reasons: people want to be accurate, defend their self-consistency, or react to the social environment. Knowing why people become persuaded or resist it led to deeply researching how these processes occur. Processes and techniques related to the likelihood of successful resistance include retrieving prior attitudes; selective exposure; bolstering initial attitudes; selective memory; biased processing; derogation of the source, content, or message and persuasive attempt; and counter-arguing, which includes forewarning and inoculation techniques. Although researchers have been prolific and steadfast in determining these facets of resistance, there are more emerging topics that are rife for the exploration. Such topics include more social motives for resistance, the mechanisms underlying successful resistance processes and techniques, how often resistance occurs, what combinations of processes and techniques engender reliable resistance, and the consequences (both individual and interpersonal) of resistance. All in all, the future for this line of work is promising and timely. Everyday life will continue to provide situations that call for the psychology of resistance to persuasion.

How do religious affiliation and beliefs shape vaccine attitudes and behaviors? This study examined the associations of attitudes and behaviors relevant to the flu, measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), and human-papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines with religious affiliations, as well as philosophical, spiritual, and moral beliefs. Respondents were 3005 adults from a probability-based, four-wave panel survey in the United States. Longitudinal structural equation modeling examined how religious affiliations and philosophical/moral beliefs shaped attitudes toward vaccines and actual vaccination. Stronger philosophical beliefs predicted more negative attitudes toward each vaccine and stronger moral beliefs more negative attitudes toward the HPV vaccine. Negative vaccine attitudes then predicted weaker intentions to encourage others to vaccinate and lower probability of receiving a vaccine. Theoretical and public health messaging implications are discussed.

When deciding whether to vaccinate, people often seek information through consequential processes that are not currently well understood. A survey of a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults (N = 2,091) explored the factors associated with intentions to seek influenza vaccine information in the 2018-2019 influenza season. This survey shed light on what motivates intentions to seek information about the influenza vaccine through the lens of the risk information seeking and processing (RISP) model. The model explained information-seeking intentions well among both unvaccinated and vaccinated respondents. Key findings show that informational subjective norms, information insufficiency, and different types of affect are strong predictors of information-seeking intentions. Theoretical insights on extending the RISP model and practical guidance on designing interventions are provided.

To understand whether health insurance coverage of vaccine costs and discussing vaccination with a healthcare provider are necessary for trust in CDC (Centers for Disease Control) to increase the uptake of the vaccine.A nationally representative sample of 2,549 adults from the United States answered questions about trust in CDC, insurance coverage, interactions with healthcare providers, and risk perceptions, and then provided longitudinal reports of actual vaccination against influenza during the course of the 2018-19 flu season.Trust in CDC as a source of information on vaccines was a strong precursor of vaccination. According to multilevel regressions, however, this effect was localized to respondents who had insurance coverage or whose providers discussed the vaccine with them. Further, the effect of trust was even stronger when both insurance coverage and healthcare provider discussions were present.Environmental factors supportive of vaccination increased the positive influence of trust in CDC on vaccine uptake by almost 50 percent. Insurance companies and healthcare providers can promote vaccination by covering the costs of vaccination and discussing vaccines in personalized conversations with patients.

Background An infodemic is an overflow of information of varying quality that surges across digital and physical environments during an acute public health event. It leads to confusion, risk-taking, and behaviors that can harm health and lead to erosion of trust in health authorities and public health responses. Owing to the global scale and high stakes of the health emergency, responding to the infodemic related to the pandemic is particularly urgent. Building on diverse research disciplines and expanding the discipline of infodemiology, more evidence-based interventions are needed to design infodemic management interventions and tools and implement them by health emergency responders. Objective The World Health Organization organized the first global infodemiology conference, entirely online, during June and July 2020, with a follow-up process from August to October 2020, to review current multidisciplinary evidence, interventions, and practices that can be applied to the COVID-19 infodemic response. This resulted in the creation of a public health research agenda for managing infodemics. Methods As part of the conference, a structured expert judgment synthesis method was used to formulate a public health research agenda. A total of 110 participants represented diverse scientific disciplines from over 35 countries and global public health implementing partners. The conference used a laddered discussion sprint methodology by rotating participant teams, and a managed follow-up process was used to assemble a research agenda based on the discussion and structured expert feedback. This resulted in a five-workstream frame of the research agenda for infodemic management and 166 suggested research questions. The participants then ranked the questions for feasibility and expected public health impact. The expert consensus was summarized in a public health research agenda that included a list of priority research questions. Results The public health research agenda for infodemic management has five workstreams: (1) measuring and continuously monitoring the impact of infodemics during health emergencies; (2) detecting signals and understanding the spread and risk of infodemics; (3) responding and deploying interventions that mitigate and protect against infodemics and their harmful effects; (4) evaluating infodemic interventions and strengthening the resilience of individuals and communities to infodemics; and (5) promoting the development, adaptation, and application of interventions and toolkits for infodemic management. Each workstream identifies research questions and highlights 49 high priority research questions. Conclusions Public health authorities need to develop, validate, implement, and adapt tools and interventions for managing infodemics in acute public health events in ways that are appropriate for their countries and contexts. Infodemiology provides a scientific foundation to make this possible. This research agenda proposes a structured framework for targeted investment for the scientific community, policy makers, implementing organizations, and other stakeholders to consider.

Harm reduction interventions, including SSP (Syringe Services Programs) and MAT (Medications for Addiction Treatment) have demonstrated the potential to help stem the epidemic of opioid use disorder. However, for that potential to be realized, people must expect that healthcare providers will be supportive if they ever seek care for substance use.This cross-sectional study investigated perceptions of provider support for SSP and MAT in the general population of 14 states selected specifically for 50 percent of the sample to include participants from rural counties with high rates of non-medical opioid use and injection. A survey of 3096 adults in 14 states and 675 counties within the Appalachian and Midwestern regions of the United States (collected between November of 2019 and May of 2020) examined the association between perceptions of provider support for harm reduction interventions, community members' trust of community healthcare providers, and expectations for patient-provider interactions involving disclosure of non-medical drug use.Path analysis supported the hypothesis that perceptions of provider support for harm reduction interventions predict positive expectations about patient-provider interactions and that trust in providers mediates this association. The model fit well among participants who reported past non-medical use of drugs and those who did not. In contrast to other research suggesting that trust in providers may be inconsequential during the initial stages of care, the current research suggests that trust may shape expectations about patient-provider interactions even before people use drugs. Communication of support for harm reduction interventions by providers may play an important role in promoting health care-seeking in populations that use drugs currently or who may use drugs in the future in high-risk rural areas of the United States.

Objectives. To determine whether holding vaccine misconceptions, in the form of negative beliefs about vaccines, correlates with opposing governmental action at all levels designed to increase vaccination (e.g., removing personal belief and religious vaccine exemptions). Methods. Drawing on data from a nationally representative survey of 1938 US adults, we assessed the relation between negative beliefs about vaccines and provaccination policies. Results. Beyond sociodemographic and policy-relevant variables, such as gender and partisan affiliation, questionable negative beliefs about vaccines are the strongest predictor of opposition to policies designed to increase vaccination. Conclusions. Negative beliefs about vaccines in the general population may thwart the passage or implementation of policies designed to increase vaccination. Implementing strategies that reduce these negative beliefs should be a priority of educators and public health officials.

Objectives Acceptance of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and testing for HIV is likely to vary as a function of the norms and communications within a geographic area. This study examined associations involving county tweets, in person communications, and HIV prevention and testing in regions with higher (vs. lower) estimated rates of men who have sex with men (MSM). Design and methods Ecological analyses examined (a) tweets about HIV (i.e. tweet rates per 100 000 county population and topic probabilities in 1959 US counties); (b) individual-level survey data about HIV prevention and testing and communications about PrEP and HIV (N = 30 675 participants); and (c) estimated county-level MSM rates (per 1 000 adult men). Results In counties with higher rates of MSM, tweet rates were directly associated with PrEP use and HIV testing (rs = .06, BF10 > 10). Topics correlated with PrEP use (rs = -0.06 to 0.07, BF10 > 10) and HIV testing (rs = -0.05 to 0.05, BF10 > 10). Mediation analyses showed that hearing about and discussing PrEP mediated the relations between tweet rates and PrEP use (bi∗ = 0.01-0.05, BF10 > 100) and between topics and PrEP use (bi∗ = -0.04- 0.05, BF10 > 10). Moreover, hearing about PrEP was associated with PrEP use, which was in turn associated with tweet rates (bi∗ = 0.01, BF10 > 100) and topics (bi∗ = -0.03 - 0.01, BF10 > 10). Conclusions Rates of MSM appear to lead to HIV tweets in a region, in person communications about PrEP, and, ultimately, actual PrEP use. Also, as more men hear about PrEP, they may use PrEP more and may tweet about HIV.

This book explains how actions and inactions arise and change in social contexts, including social media and face-to-face communication. Its multidisciplinary perspective covers research from psychology, communication, public health, business studies, and environmental sciences. The reader can use this cutting-edge approach to design and interpret effects of behavioral change interventions as well as replicate the materials and methods implemented to study them. The author provides an organized set of principles that take the reader from the formation of attitudes and goals, to the structure of action and inaction. It also reflects on how cognitive processes explain excesses of action while inaction persists elsewhere. This practical guide summarises the best practices persuasion and behavioral interventions to promote changes in health, consumer, and social behaviors.

Even though the terms "action" and "inaction" have been used to describe objects of attitudes, behaviors, and goals, the meaning of action and inaction for lay people has not been investigated.In Study 1, participants were asked to spontaneously generate words and behaviors associated with action or inaction. In Studies 2 and 3, participants were presented with behaviors and asked to report whether each behavior involved agency, effort, and change.Natural language processing of the responses from Study 1 revealed lay conceptualizations included topics related to occurrence, agency, effort, and change. In Studies 2 and 3, simple regressions showed agency, effort, and change correlated with judgments of action and inaction. However, once these predictors were simultaneously entered into a multiple regression, effort captured most of the variance.These findings suggest that, even though agency and change are important to the definition of action and inaction, effort is paramount.

Vaccination yields the direct individual benefit of protecting recipients from infectious diseases and also the indirect social benefit of reducing the transmission of infections to others, often referred to as herd immunity. This research examines how prosocial concern for vaccination, defined as people’s preoccupation with infecting others if they do not vaccinate themselves, motivates vaccination in more and less populated regions of the United States. A nationally representative, longitudinal survey of 2,490 Americans showed that prosocial concern had a larger positive influence on vaccination against influenza in sparser regions, as judged by a region’s nonmetropolitan status, lesser population density, and lower proportion of urban land area. Two experiments (total n = 800), one preregistered, provide causal evidence that drawing attention to prosocial (vs. individual) concerns interacted with social density to affect vaccination intentions. Specifically, prosocial concern led to stronger intentions to vaccinate against influenza and COVID-19 but only when social density was low (vs. high). Moderated mediation analyses show that, in low-density conditions, the benefits of inducing prosocial concern were due to greater perceived impact of one’s vaccination on others. In this light, public health communications may reap more benefits from emphasizing the prosocial aspects of vaccination in sparser environments.

Highlights • Incorporating data on daily Google searches, we investigated whether COVID-19 mitigation policies were associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety. • We found that mitigation policies were positively associated with the search indexes for mental health symptoms but do not suggest durable effects. • Moreover, the policies decreased searches for antidepressants and suicide, revealing no evidence of increases in severe symptomatology. • We found suggestive evidence that the policies increased within-home hours which might promote new routines and greater social support within the family., Given the unprecedented level and duration of mitigation policies during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, it is not surprising that the public and the media have raised important questions about the potential for negative mental health consequences of the measures. To answer them, natural variability in policy implementation across US states and over time was analyzed to determine if mitigation policies correlated with Google searches for terms associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety. Findings indicated that restaurant/bar limits and stay-at-home orders correlated with immediate increases in searches for isolation and worry but the effects tapered off two to four weeks after their respective peaks. Moreover, the policies correlated with a reduction in searches for antidepressants and suicide, thus revealing no evidence of increases in severe symptomatology. The policy implications of these findings are discussed.

Background Although rates of nonmedical opioid use are highest in late adolescence and emerging adulthood, efforts to understand the extent of the heterogeneity in opioid misuse during this time have been limited. The current study aimed to derive and define typologies of opioid use in high school students at the onset of emerging adulthood. Methods Survey responses from a statewide sample of high school students aged 18 and 19 (N = 26,223) were analyzed. Group-based comparisons between participants reporting opioid use and those not reporting opioid use were conducted. Among those reporting opioid use (n = 1,636), we conducted a latent class analysis (LCA) to identify heterogeneous subgroups of opioid users on the basis of non-medical use of prescription opioids (NMUPO) and heroin use. The resulting classes were then compared across various risk and protective factors using multinominal logistic regression. Results Consistent differences were observed between participants using opioids and participants not using opioids, with moderate to large effect sizes. Results from LCA revealed three subclasses: NMUPO-Any Use, NMUPO To Get High, and Heroin Use. Subclass differences were observed for non-opioid substance use, mental health, and demographics. Conclusions Findings from this study underscore the variability of youth who engage in opioid use in late adolescence. Results also indicate that opioid use during adolescence is likely indicative of a broader set of substance use and mental health issues.

Highlights • Regional Twitter vaccine content was prospectively associated with attitudes. • Regional Twitter vaccine content was prospectively associated with vaccination. • Discussing the influenza vaccine with others can remove the negative effects of Twitter vaccine content., Objective Using longitudinal methods to assess regional associations between social media posts about vaccines and attitudes and actual vaccination against influenza in the US. Methods Geolocated tweets from U.S. counties (N = 115,330) were analyzed using MALLET LDA (Latent Dirichlet allocation) topic modeling techniques to correlate with prospective individual survey data (N = 3005) about vaccine attitudes, actual vaccination, and real-life discussions about vaccines with family and friends during the 2018–2019 influenza season. Results Ten topics were common across U.S. counties during the 2018–2019 influenza season. In the overall analyses, two of these topics (i.e., Vaccine Science Matters and Big Pharma) were associated with attitudes and behaviors. The topic concerning vaccine science in November-February was positively correlated with attitudes in February-March, r = 0.09, BF10 = 3. Moreover, among respondents who did not discuss the influenza vaccine with family and friends, the topic about vaccine fraud and children in November-February was negatively correlated with attitudes in February-March and with vaccination in February-March, and April-May (rs = −0.18 to −0.25, BF10 = 4–146). However, this was absent when participants had discussions about the influenza vaccine with family and friends. Discussion Regional vaccine content correlated with prospective measures of vaccine attitudes and actual vaccination. Conclusions Social media have demonstrated strong associations with vaccination patterns. When the associations are negative, discussions with family and friends appear to eliminate them. Programs to promote vaccination should encourage real-life conversations about vaccines.

Five experiments investigated a previously unrecognized phenomenon—remembering that one enacted a mundane behavioral decision when one only intended to do so—and its psychological mechanisms. The theoretical conceptualization advanced in this research proposes that this error stems from a misattribution when an intention and a behavior are similar. Intentions and behaviors are similar when the physical aspects of the behavior resemble the intention (e.g., both require similar keystrokes) and when the behavior and the intention share mental contents (e.g., both rely on the same criterion). Experiments 1 and 2 introduced a paradigm with similar intentions and enactments and showed misreports and subsequent performance errors even when controlling for guessing. Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrated greater confusion when the physical involvement and mental criteria for intention and behavior were similar. Finally, Experiment 5 indicated that monitoring enactment is highly effective at reducing this error and more effective than monitoring intention.

Introduction Increased insurance coverage and access to health care can increase identification of undiagnosed HIV infection and use of HIV prevention services such as pre-exposure prophylaxis. This study investigates whether the Medicaid expansions facilitated by the Affordable Care Act had these effects. Methods A difference-in-differences design was used to estimate the effects of the Medicaid expansions using data on HIV diagnoses per 100,000 population, awareness of HIV status, and pre-exposure prophylaxis use. The analyses involved first calculating differences in new diagnoses and pre-exposure prophylaxis use before and after the expansions and then comparing these differences between treatment counties (i.e., all counties in states that expanded Medicaid) and control counties (i.e., all counties in states that did not expand Medicaid). Further analyses to investigate mechanisms addressed associations with HIV incidence, rates of sexually transmitted infections, and substance use. Analyses were conducted between August 2019 and July 2020. Results Medicaid expansions were associated with an increase in HIV diagnoses of 0.508 per 100,000 population, or 13.9% (p=0.037), particularly for infections contracted via injection drug use and among low-income, rural counties with a high share of pre–Affordable Care Act uninsured rates that were most likely to be affected by the expansions. In addition, Medicaid expansions were associated with improvements in the knowledge of HIV status and pre-exposure prophylaxis use. There was no impact of the expansions on incident HIV, substance use, or sexually transmitted infection rates with the exception of gonorrhea, which decreased after the expansions. Altogether, these results suggest that the changes in new HIV diagnoses, awareness of HIV status, and pre-exposure prophylaxis were not simply because of a higher incidence or an increase in infection risk. Conclusions Medicaid expansions were associated with increases in the percentage of people living with HIV who are aware of their status and pre-exposure prophylaxis use. Expanding public health insurance may be an avenue for curbing the HIV epidemic.

A US national probability-based survey during the early days of the SARS-CoV-2 spread in the US showed that, above and beyond respondents’ political party, mainstream broadcast media use (e.g., NBC News) correlated with accurate information about the disease's lethality, and mainstream print media use (e.g., the New York Times) correlated with accurate beliefs about protection from infection. In addition, conservative media use (e.g., Fox News) correlated with conspiracy theories including believing that some in the CDC were exaggerating the seriousness of the virus to undermine the presidency of Donald Trump. Five recommendations are made to improve public understanding of SARS-CoV-2.

The action-effect (Kahneman & Tversky, 1982) is one of the most widely cited and replicated effects in the regret literature, showing that negative outcomes are regretted more when they are a result of action compared to inaction. Building on theoretical arguments by norm theory (Kahneman & Miller, 1986) and the concept of normality, we examine the role of social norms for action and inaction in affecting regret. In four experiments we manipulated social norms and action-effect scenarios and found that social norms matter. For decisions resulting in negative outcomes, action is regretted more than inaction when social norms are for inaction, but when social norms are for action the effect is significantly weakened (Experiments 1 and 4) or reversed (Experiments 2 and 3).

Contains fulltext : 214941.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) We present a consensus-based checklist to improve and document the transparency of research reports in social and behavioural research. An accompanying online application allows users to complete the form and generate a report that they can submit with their manuscript or post to a public repository. 3 p.

Author(s): Aczel, Balazs; Szaszi, Barnabas; Sarafoglou, Alexandra; Kekecs, Zoltan; Kucharský, Simon; Benjamin, Daniel; Chambers, Christopher D; Fisher, Agneta; Gelman, Andrew; Gernsbacher, Morton A; Ioannidis, John P; Johnson, Eric; Jonas, Kai; Kousta, Stavroula; Lilienfeld, Scott O; Lindsay, D Stephen; Morey, Candice C; Munafo, Marcus; Newell, Benjamin R; Pashler, Harold; Shanks, David R; Simons, Daniel J; Wicherts, Jelte M; Albarracin, Dolores; Anderson, Nicole D; Antonakis, John; Arkes, Hal R; Back, Mitja D; Banks, George C; Beevers, Christopher; Bennett, Andrew A; Bleidorn, Wiebke; Boyer, Ty W; Cacciari, Cristina; Carter, Alice S; Cesario, Joseph; Clifton, Charles; Conroy, Ronan M; Cortese, Mike; Cosci, Fiammetta; Cowan, Nelson; Crawford, Jarret; Crone, Eveline A; Curtin, John; Engle, Randall; Farrell, Simon; Fearon, Pasco; Fichman, Mark; Frankenhuis, Willem; Freund, Alexandra M; Gaskell, M Gareth; Giner-Sorolla, Roger; Green, Don P; Greene, Robert L; Harlow, Lisa L; de la Guardia, Fernando Hoces; Isaacowitz, Derek; Kolodner, Janet; Lieberman, Debra; Logan, Gordon D; Mendes, Wendy B; Moersdorf, Lea; Nyhan, Brendan; Pollack, Jeffrey; Sullivan, Christopher; Vazire, Simine; Wagenmakers, Eric-Jan | Abstract: An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

This research aimed to determine the nature of social media discussions about HIV. With the goal of conducting a descriptive analysis, we collected almost 1,000 tweets posted February to September 2015. The sample of tweets included keywords related to HIV or behavioral risk factors (e.g., sex, drug use) and was coded for content (e.g., HIV), behavior change strategies, and message source. Seven percent of tweets concerned HIV/AIDS, which were often referred to as jokes or insults. The majority of tweets coded as behavior change attempts involved attitude change strategies. The majority of the tweets (80%) came from private users (vs. organizations). Different types of sources employed different types of behavior change strategies: For instance, private users, compared to experts or organizations, included more strategies to decrease detrimental attitudes (29% versus 6%,Esta investigación tuvo el objectivo de caracterizar las discusiones sobre VIH en los medios sociales. Con el objetivo de realizar un análisis descriptivo, recogimos alrededor de mil tweets entre febrero y septiembre del 2015. Estos tweets fueron seleccionados si incluían palabras claves relacionadas con el VIH o con factores de riesgo conductual tales como sexo o uso de drogas. Cuatro codificadores clasificaron los tweets en función del contenido (e.g., el VIH como enfermedad, referido a un product o servicio), la estrategia de cambio conductual (cambio conductual, llamada a la acción, o corrección de mitos), y la fuente del mensaje (e.g., usuarios privados, expertos, empresas comerciales). La mayoría de los tweets (80%) provenía de usuarios privados en lugar de institucionales. El 7% de los tweets se refería estrictamente al VIH u otras infecciones de transmisión sexual, frecuentemente utilizando esos términos como bromas o insultos, tales como escribir que una experiencia displacentera “me dio SIDA”. La mayoría de los intentos de cambio conductual incluía estrategias de reducción de actitudes negativas. Fuentes de distintos tipos empleaban estrategias de cambio conductual de distintos tipos. Por ejemplo, usuarios privados (comparados con expertos, organizaciones comerciales, y otras organizaciones, tal como periódicos y ONGs), publicaban más mesajes clasificados como estrategias de promoción de actitudes negativas (29% versus 6%

Summary In demand of predicting new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) diagnosis rates based on publicly available HIV data that are abundant in space but have few points in time, we propose a class of spatially varying auto-regressive models compounded with conditional auto-regressive spatial correlation structures. We then propose to use the copula approach and a flexible conditional auto-regressive formulation to model the dependence between adjacent counties. These models allow for spatial and temporal correlation as well as space–time interactions and are naturally suitable for predicting HIV cases and other spatiotemporal disease data that feature a similar data structure. We apply the proposed models to HIV data over Florida, California and New England states and compare them with a range of linear mixed models that have been recently popular for modelling spatiotemporal disease data. The results show that for such data our proposed models outperform the others in terms of prediction.

This review covers research on attitudes and attitude change published between 2010 and 2017. We characterize this period as one of significant progress toward an understanding of how attitudes form and change in three critical contexts. The first context is the person, as attitudes change in connection to values, general goals, language, emotions, and human development. The second context is social relationships, which link attitude change to the communicator of persuasive messages, social media, and culture. The third context is sociohistorical and highlights the influence of unique events, including sociopolitical, economic, and climatic occurrences. In conclusion, many important recent findings reflect the fact that holism, with a focus on situating attitudes within their personal, social, and historical contexts, has become the zeitgeist of attitude research during this period.

At a time when pseudoscience threatens the survival of communities, understanding this vulnerability, and how to reduce it, is paramount. Four preregistered experiments (N = 532, N = 472, N = 605, N = 382) with online U.S. samples introduced false claims concerning a (fictional) virus created as a bioweapon, mirroring conspiracy theories about COVID-19, and carcinogenic effects of GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms). We identify two critical determinants of vulnerability to pseudoscience. First, participants who trust science are more likely to believe and disseminate false claims that contain scientific references than false claims that do not. Second, reminding participants of the value of critical evaluation reduces belief in false claims, whereas reminders of the value of trusting science do not. We conclude that trust in science, although desirable in many ways, makes people vulnerable to pseudoscience. These findings have implications for science broadly and the application of psychological science to curbing misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic.