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Understanding how individual beliefs and societal values influence support for measures to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission is vital to developing and implementing effective prevention policies. Using both Just World Theory and Cultural Dimensions Theory, the present study considered how individual-level justice beliefs and country-level social values predict support for vaccination and quarantine policy mandates to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Data from an international survey of adults from 46 countries (N = 6424) were used to evaluate how individual-level beliefs about justice for self and others, as well as national values—that is, power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and indulgence—influence support for vaccination and quarantine behavioral mandates. Multilevel modeling revealed that support for vaccination and quarantine mandates were positively associated with individual-level beliefs about justice for self, and negatively associated with country-level uncertainty avoidance. Significant cross-level interactions revealed that beliefs about justice for self were associated more strongly with support for mandatory vaccination in countries high in individualism, whereas beliefs about justice for others were more strongly associated with support for vaccination and quarantine mandates in countries high in long-term orientation. Beliefs about justice and cultural values can independently and also interactively influence support for evidence-based practices to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission, such as vaccination and quarantine. Understanding these multilevel influences may inform efforts to develop and implement effective prevention policies in varied national contexts.

Cross-societal differences in cooperation and trust among strangers in the provision of public goods may be key to understanding how societies are managing the COVID-19 pandemic. We report a survey conducted across 41 societies between March and May 2020 (N = 34,526), and test pre-registered hypotheses about how cross-societal differences in cooperation and trust relate to prosocial COVID-19 responses (e.g., social distancing), stringency of policies, and support for behavioral regulations (e.g., mandatory quarantine). We further tested whether cross-societal variation in institutions and ecologies theorized to impact cooperation were associated with prosocial COVID-19 responses, including institutional quality, religiosity, and historical prevalence of pathogens. We found substantial variation across societies in prosocial COVID-19 responses, stringency of policies, and support for behavioral regulations. However, we found no consistent evidence to support the idea that cross-societal variation in cooperation and trust among strangers is associated with these outcomes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. These results were replicated with another independent cross-cultural COVID-19 dataset (N = 112,136), and in both snowball and representative samples. We discuss implications of our results, including challenging the assumption that managing the COVID-19 pandemic across societies is best modeled as a public goods dilemma.

Abstract. In the last years within sustainability research, the agreement seems to have changed about the appropriate strategies to solve the intensifying socio-ecological crisis. While the focus used to be on “greening” individual lifestyles, it has recently shifted to the fundamental transition of central societal production and consumption systems. This raises the question of what psychology with its traditional focus on the individual can contribute to a better understanding and successful design of such societal transition processes. The present paper aims to offer an outline of how such psychological research lines might look like. We use the social identity concept as a starting point and motivate it as central for understanding the transformation of an individual into a group member who voluntarily collaborates with others to create more sustainable socio-technical solutions for central societal needs. The three parts of our paper deliver compact descriptions of thought-provoking research lines which developed in the last years. These research lines contribute to a better understanding of how social identities as collective pro-environmental activists are “crafted,” through which processes such as activist identities influence the participation in collective pro-environmental action and, ultimately, collective change. In sum, an important psychological contribution to the debate about the “Great Transformation” could be to provide a better understanding of what motivates individuals to actively participate in transition-oriented initiatives and how this motivation can be strengthened.

BackgroundThe effective implementation of government policies and measures for controlling the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic requires compliance from the public. This study aimed to examine cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of trust in government regarding COVID-19 control with the adoption of recommended health behaviours and prosocial behaviours, and potential determinants of trust in government during the pandemic.MethodsThis study analysed data from the PsyCorona Survey, an international project on COVID-19 that included 23 733 participants from 23 countries (representative in age and gender distributions by country) at baseline survey and 7785 participants who also completed follow-up surveys. Specification curve analysis was used to examine concurrent associations between trust in government and self-reported behaviours. We further used structural equation model to explore potential determinants of trust in government. Multilevel linear regressions were used to examine associations between baseline trust and longitudinal behavioural changes.ResultsHigher trust in government regarding COVID-19 control was significantly associated with higher adoption of health behaviours (handwashing, avoiding crowded space, self-quarantine) and prosocial behaviours in specification curve analyses (median standardised β = 0.173 and 0.229, p < 0.001). Government perceived as well organised, disseminating clear messages and knowledge on COVID-19, and perceived fairness were positively associated with trust in government (standardised β = 0.358, 0.230, 0.056, and 0.249, p < 0.01). Higher trust at baseline survey was significantly associated with lower rate of decline in health behaviours over time (p for interaction = 0.001).ConclusionsThese results highlighted the importance of trust in government in the control of COVID-19.

Abstract. Prior research has reported less favorable attitudes toward and more violent crimes against ethnic out-group members in East (vs. West) Germany. We conducted two pre-registered lost letter studies in West versus East German cities (Study 1, N = 400) and in West versus East German rural areas (Study 2, N = 400). To investigate supportive behavior regarding refugee integration, we manipulated the addressee (refugee-integration vs. immigration-stop projects). Contrary to predictions, letter return rates did not differ between West and East Germany. Across western and eastern German regions, return rates were higher for the refugee-integration project in urban areas while no differences emerged in rural areas. A pooled analysis found greater support for the refugee-integration (vs. immigration-stop) project.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a global health crisis. Consequently, many countries have adopted restrictive measures that caused a substantial change in society. Within this framework, it is reasonable to suppose that a sentiment of societal discontent, defined as generalized concern about the precarious state of society, has arisen. Literature shows that collectively experienced situations can motivate people to help each other. Since societal discontent is conceptualized as a collective phenomenon, we argue that it could influence intention to help others, particularly those who suffer from coronavirus. Thus, in the present study, we aimed (a) to explore the relationship between societal discontent and intention to help at the individual level and (b) to investigate a possible moderating effect of societal discontent at the country level on this relationship. To fulfil our purposes, we used data collected in 42 countries (N = 61,734) from the PsyCorona Survey, a cross-national longitudinal study. Results of multilevel analysis showed that, when societal discontent is experienced by the entire community, individuals dissatisfied with society are more prone to help others. Testing the model with longitudinal data (N = 3,817) confirmed our results. Implications for those findings are discussed in relation to crisis management. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement. New York University Abu Dhabi

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. Understanding the determinants of COVID-19 vaccine uptake is important to inform policy decisions and plan vaccination campaigns. The aims of this research were to: (1) explore the individual- and country-level determinants of intentions to be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, and (2) examine worldwide variation in vaccination intentions. This cross-sectional online survey was conducted during the first wave of the pandemic, involving 6697 respondents across 20 countries. Results showed that 72.9% of participants reported positive intentions to be vaccinated against COVID-19, whereas 16.8% were undecided, and 10.3% reported they would not be vaccinated. At the individual level, prosociality was a significant positive predictor of vaccination intentions, whereas generic beliefs in conspiracy theories and religiosity were negative predictors. Country-level determinants, including cultural dimensions of individualism/collectivism and power distance, were not significant predictors of vaccination intentions. Altogether, this study identifies individual-level predictors that are common across multiple countries, provides further evidence on the importance of combating conspiracy theories, involving religious institutions in vaccination campaigns, and stimulating prosocial motives to encourage vaccine uptake.

Objective The present research examines the link between moral foundations (Graham et al., 2013; Haidt, 2007) and prosociality. Adopting a person × situation interaction perspective, we suggest that individualizers (whose morality is driven by considerations of harm and justice) act in accordance with their moral values particularly in situations that contain cues of neediness. Method In Study 1, we measured participants' visual attention toward varying degrees of suffering (within-participants). In Studies 2 and 3 participants were exposed to strong need or not (between-participants) and their moral regard and prosocial intent was assessed. Results In the face of visual cues of suffering (Study 1) or the presence of strong need (Studies 2 and 3), individualizers reacted with increased attention toward suffering, greater moral responsibility, and stronger prosocial intent. Individuals high on the binding foundations (whose morality is driven by ingroup loyalty, authority, and purity), however, avoided suffering irrespective of its degree (Study 1), did not oblige themselves with moral responsibility (Study 2), and reported reduced prosocial intent in reaction to need (Study 3). Conclusion An interactionist account of foundation-based prosociality demonstrates that individualizers are likely to help when helping might be perceived as futile, however this potential needs to be activated.

We examine German participants’ assessment of the time of National Socialism. Especially for younger generations, shifts in the culture of remembrance may change their assessments of historical events. We argue that factors such as increased formal education about the topic and decreased personal contact with contemporary witnesses can weaken attributional biases (e.g., ingroup favouritism) in the assessment of the role of the German population during the time of National Socialism. We use data from a German representative sample (N = 1,000) and focus on the links between participants’ age and the estimated involvement of the German population under National Socialism as perpetrators, victims, helpers, and “bystanders,” as well as the agreement with explanations why the general population did not act against National Socialist crimes. Younger participants estimated the proportions of perpetrators and bystanders within the German population as higher and were less likely to agree that Germans did not know about the systematic killings. Older participants were more likely to agree with situational explanations for the population’s inaction (i.e., that Germans did not know or did not have an opportunity to act against the crimes). We find a positive relation between a more critical perspective on the involvement of the population in the past and participants’ feelings of responsibility in the present.

The transmission of national history in general and family narratives in particular is prone to censorship and bias, protecting or enhancing social identities. The authors propose that, as has been shown for national groups, families also create and pass on representations about their roles and behaviors through history. In a representative survey, 1000 German respondents estimated the percentages of victims, perpetrators, and those who helped potential victims during the time of National Socialism to be 35%, 34%, and 16%, respectively. For family representations, the percentages shifted toward helping (29%) and away from complicity (20%), while representations of victimhood were as prevalent (36%) as estimates for the general population. Systematic differences suggested an alignment of general social representations of history with family representations. Participants reporting a perpetrator family representation held more positive attitudes toward refugees coming to Germany today than participants who did not report such a representation. This link was mediated through differences in societal representations. The authors discuss family representations as an intermediate, more proximate prescriptive background and points of reference, according to which more general historical representations on a national level may be aligned, and individual present-day political attitudes and behaviors oriented.

Previous studies suggested that public trust in government is vital for implementations of social policies that rely on public's behavioural responses. This study examined associations of trust in government regarding COVID-19 control with recommended health behaviours and prosocial behaviours. Data from an international survey with representative samples (N=23,733) of 23 countries were analysed. Specification curve analysis showed that higher trust in government was significantly associated with higher adoption of health and prosocial behaviours in all reasonable specifications of multilevel linear models (median standardised β=0.173 and 0.244, P

Reducing meat consumption is an important element of an effective climate protection strategy, but meat consumption is highly habitualized and therefore difficult to change. This article uses an extended version of the theory of planned behavior with habit strength as additional predictor. In one longitudinal (N=227) and one prospective correlational study (N=212), attitudes toward and perceived ease of meat consumption reduction explained about 60% of variance of meat consumption reduction intentions, with habit strength being the strongest correlate of actual self-reported meat consumption. A third experimental study (N=192) demonstrated that implementation intentions can be an effective strategy for realizing reduction aims. We discuss the central role of habits for meat consumption.

Highlights • Risk perception of COVID-19 was associated with more negative/less positive emotions. • Risk perception of COVID-19 was inversely associated with subsequent mental health. • The association between risk perception and mental health was mediated by emotions. • Specification curve analysis was used to avoid subjective analytical decisions., Background Although there are increasing concerns on mental health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, no large-scale population-based studies have examined the associations of risk perception of COVID-19 with emotion and subsequent mental health. Methods : This study analysed cross-sectional and longitudinal data from the PsyCorona Survey that included 54,845 participants from 112 countries, of which 23,278 participants are representative samples of 24 countries in terms of gender and age. Specification curve analysis (SCA) was used to examine associations of risk perception of COVID-19 with emotion and self-rated mental health. This robust method considers all reasonable model specifications to avoid subjective analytical decisions while accounting for multiple testing. Results : All 162 multilevel linear regressions in the SCA indicated that higher risk perception of COVID-19 was significantly associated with less positive or more negative emotions (median standardised β=-0.171, median SE=0.004, P0.05). Limitations Reliance on self-reported data. Conclusions : Risk perception of COVID-19 was associated with emotion and ultimately mental health. Interventions on reducing excessive risk perception and managing emotional distress could promote mental health.

Short-term mating orientation (STMO) and hostile sexism (HS) selectively predict different types of sexual harassment (Diehl, Rees, & Bohner, 2012, *Aggressive Behavior*). In a priming experiment, we studied the situational malleability of those effects. Male participants could repeatedly send sexist jokes (gender harassment), harassing remarks (unwanted sexual attention), or nonharassing messages to a (computer-simulated) female target. Before entering the laboratory, participants were unobtrusively primed with the concepts of either sexuality or power. As hypothesized, sexuality priming strengthened the link between STMO and unwanted sexual attention, whereas power priming strengthened the link between HS and gender harassment. Practical implications are discussed.

This paper proposes social identity as a psychological concept that connects societal and individual aspects of transformation processes. To this end, we embed the social identity concept into the multilevel perspective, a framework frequently used for analysing societal transformation processes. The paper presents three meta-analyses summarizing the empirical evidence for the postulated strong pro-environmental social identity-pro-environmental collective action link. A first meta-analysis (nine samples) finds a pooled correlation of r+ = .63 between pro-environmental social identity and intention to participate in pro-environmental collective action. This finding is replicated in a second meta-analysis, which shows a correlation of r+ = 0.56 (15 samples). The third meta-analysis supports that pro-environmental social identity is a stronger predictor of collective pro-environmental action than of individual pro-environmental private-sphere behavior (r+ = 0.35; eight samples). We discuss implications of these findings for further research and highlight power and ideology as additional transformation-oriented psychological constructs.

Global and societal challenges such as climate change cannot be solved by focusing on single actors and individual behavior change alone but are inherently social problems. The current chapter therefore focuses on the group dynamics involved in the context of climate protection. More specifically, we examine psychological factors underlying individuals’ engagement in collective climate protection. We begin by briefly outlining an influential model developed in the context of collective protest, the social identity model of collective action and its recent modifications. We then develop a preliminary model of collective climate action, summarize research on how individuals become activists in the first place, and discuss practical interventions on how to get people engaged. Finally, we take a closer look at the various psychological outcomes of participation in collective action. While engagement is costly, e.g., with regard to time, there is also growing evidence that ongoing participation in collective action can evoke feelings of empowerment and stimulate personal development. A psychology of collective climate action can lay the foundations for an investigation of—and hopefully inspire research on—the genuinely social transformative processes in the context of climate protection.

There seems to be consensus that apart from individual behavioral change, system-wide transformations are required to address the challenges posed by climate change. Collective action is viewed as one core mechanism in social transformation but there is currently no systematic research on collective climate action. By reviewing theoretical perspectives and models explaining collective protest, we aim to provide a starting point for such a research program. Based on correlational data from a student sample (N = 652), a sample of participants of a local climate protection initiative (N = 71), and visitors of a climate protection event (N = 88), we tested constructs derived from these theoretical models. Social identity, perceived behavioral control, and participative efficacy beliefs consistently predicted substantial amounts of variance in participation intention. Implications for future research are discussed, such as recognizing the interplay between cost-benefit calculations and social identity, or temporal dynamics in collective action engagement. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Personal travel planning (PTP) is generally regarded as an effective approach to voluntary travel behavior change in the domain of transportation research. However, this view has recently been challenged by findings from another research domain, public health research, reporting little or no effect of PTP-based interventions. We argue that these conflicting results regarding the effectiveness of PTP-based measures are due to different understandings of which research designs should be used: Transportation research tends to be based on large-scale quasi-experimental designs whereas public health research tends to favor experimental designs such as randomized control trials (RCTs). Consequently, we argue, the discrepancy may at least partly be resolved by a more nuanced position on what empirical evidence really matters when evaluating if an intervention is effective or not. In the empirical part of the paper, we meta-analytically re-analyze ten quasi-experimental PTP evaluation studies and report an experimental RCT-based study testing the effectiveness of a PTP strategy implemented in a major German city. Including all information in one meta-analytical synthesis yields a standardized effect size estimate of Cohen's h = 0.12, documenting a small but reliable effect of PTP interventions. When implementing a PTP like one of those analyzed in this paper, in other words, we can expect an average reduction of the car modal split share of about 5 percentage points. We close by discussing the implications of our results for future PTP evaluation studies and the dispute about what kind of empirical evidence really matters when evaluating the effectiveness of PTP measures. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The aims of the current paper are to contribute to theorizing in the field of collective action and also to bring this body of research closer with the literature on climate change. We suggest integrating the concept of social norms into the social identity model of collective action, to investigate the determinants of individuals' collective climate action intention. We argue that perceived social norms will be helpful in understanding the social identity-collective action link. Consistent with the proposed model, participants' (N = 538) intention to take part in a neighborhood-based climate protection initiative was predicted via all of the model constructs (social identity, perceived collective efficacy, and group-based emotions) but most strongly so by the perceived participation norm, which also fully mediated the effect of social identity on participation intention. Further analyses suggested that the emotional motivation to engage in collective climate action was based on group-based guilty conscience rather than anger. Discussion focuses on the importance of social context in understanding and combating climatic change, the emotionally flexible motivations behind different forms of collective action, and the role of group identification in interventions aimed at promoting pro-environmental behavior. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article focuses on the effects of group-based emotions for in-group wrongdoing on attitudes towards seemingly unrelated groups. Two forms of shame are distinguished from one another and from guilt and linked to positive and negative attitudes towards an unrelated minority. In Study 1 (N = 203), Germans' feelings of moral shame—arising from the belief that the in-group's Nazi past violates an important moral value—are associated with increased support for Turks living in Germany. Image shame—arising from a threatened social image—is associated with increased social distance. In Study 2 (N = 301), Britons' emotions regarding atrocities committed by in-group members during the war in Iraq have similar links with attitudes towards Pakistani immigrants. We extend the findings of Study 1 by demonstrating that the effects are mediated by a sense of moral obligation and observed more strongly when the unrelated group is perceived as similar to the harmed group. Guilt was unrelated to any outcome variable across both studies. Theoretical and practical implications about the nature of group-based emotions and their potential for affecting wider intergroup relations are discussed

Um das Zusammenwirken von Genen und Umwelt und deren Zusammenhange mit Gesundheit zu systematisieren, fuhren wir kurz in die Logik einschlagiger Studiendesigns ein, geben einen Uberblick uber Erblichkeitsschatzungen von Krankheiten und zwischen Genen und Gesundheit vermittelnde Mechanismen. Der Hauptteil des Kapitels widmet sich verschiedenen Varianten, in denen Anlage- und Umwelt-Einflusse interagieren konnen. Wir schliesen mit einigen aktuellen Entwicklungen, Sorgen und Potenzialen, die mit den interaktiven Einflussen von Genen und Umwelt auf unsere Gesundheit verbunden sind.

We combine evolutionary and sociocultural accounts of sexual harassment, proposing that sexuality-related and hostility-related motives lead to different types of harassment. Specifically, men's short-term mating orientation (STMO) was hypothesized to predict only unwanted sexual attention but not gender harassment, whereas men's hostile sexism (HS) was hypothesized to predict both unwanted sexual attention and gender harassment. As part of an alleged computer-chat task, 100 male students could send sexualized personal remarks (representing unwanted sexual attention), sexist jokes (representing gender harassment), or nonharassing material to an attractive female target. Independently, participants' STMO, HS, and sexual harassment myth acceptance (SHMA) were assessed. Correlational and path analyses revealed that STMO specifically predicted unwanted sexual attention, whereas HS predicted both unwanted sexual attention and gender harassment. Furthermore, SHMA fully mediated the effect of HS on gender harassment, but did not mediate effects of STMO or HS on unwanted sexual attention. Results are discussed in relation to motivational explanations for sexual harassment and antiharassment interventions.

The lost letter technique is an unobtrusive method to investigate attitudes in a particular population. Ostensibly lost letters from senders who apparently belong to different groups or addressed to recipients from apparently different groups are dispersed in public places, and return rates represent a measure of altruistic or discriminatory behavior toward one group or another. In two field experiments using the lost letter technique, we investigated the influence of group membership and the presence or absence of a doctorate degree as an indicator of competence on the likelihood of receiving helping behavior. Experiment 1 showed that a generic member of a low-status ethnic out-group (Turks living in Germany) was the target of discrimination, while a generic member of a non-stigmatized out-group (French in Germany) was not. Moreover, when the name of the member from the stigmatized out-group was (vs. was not) preceded by a doctorate degree, more of the allegedly lost letters were returned. There were no such differential effects for recipients who were members of the in-group (Germans) or the non-stigmatized out-group (French). Experiment 2 showed that a recipient from the stigmatized out-group (Turk) with a doctorate degree received more letters when the sender was German versus Turkish (i.e., from the recipient's own group). Overall, the sender's ethnic group membership was an important factor for the likelihood of receiving an ostensibly lost letter, in that fewer letters arrived from a sender with a Turkish (vs. German) name. We conclude that the likelihood of altruistic behavior toward out-group members can increase when in-group members intend to communicate with competent out-group members. Therefore, under certain conditions, the presentation of a highly competent member of an otherwise stigmatized out-group may serve as a discrimination buffer.

In two studies, the authors examined the influence of rape myth acceptance (RMA) on participants’ attention toward the potential victim versus perpetrator in a rape case. In Study 1 ( N = 90), participants selected information that focused on either the male defendant or the female victim. With increasing RMA, participants preferred information that focused on the victim rather than the defendant. In Study 2 ( N = 41), participants viewed photographs depicting both victim and defendant while their eye movements were recorded. With increasing RMA, participants spent less time inspecting the defendant relative to the victim. In both studies, higher RMA predicted stronger anti-victim and pro-defendant judgments, replicating previous research. Taken together, these results support the assumption that RMA guides participants’ attention, leading to a focus on the alleged rape victim and away from the alleged perpetrator. Implications of the current research and future directions are discussed.

Conceptual frameworks in the realm of climate-related policy, attitudes and behavior frequently argue that moral emotions play a crucial role in mobilizing pro-environmental action. Yet, little is known about the direct impact of moral emotions on environmental attitudes and behavior. Drawing on emotion research in the context of intergroup relations, the current paper investigates the role of guilty conscience (guilt and shame) as well as other emotions (anger, sadness, pride, and emotional coldness) in motivating pro-environmental behavior intentions and actual behavior as a specific form of reparative action. When confronted with human-caused (vs. seemingly natural) environmental damages, participants (N = 114) reported significantly more guilty conscience. Importantly, participants in the human-caused condition were significantly more likely to spontaneously display actual pro-environmental behavior (sign a petition addressing environmental issues). Highlighting its psychological significance in motivating pro-environmental behavior, a guilty conscience mediated the experimental manipulation’s effect on behavioral intentions as well as on actual behavior. We conclude by discussing the potential of moral emotions in developing timely and sustainable climate policies and interventions.

The authors propose a framework distinguishing two types of lateral attitude change (LAC): (a) generalization effects, where attitude change toward a focal object transfers to related objects, and (b) displacement effects, where only related attitudes change but the focal attitude does not change. They bring together examples of LAC from various domains of research, outline the conditions and underlying processes of each type of LAC, and develop a theoretical framework that enables researchers to study LAC more systematically in the future. Compared with established theories of attitude change, the LAC framework focuses on lateral instead of focal attitude change and encompasses both generalization and displacement. Novel predictions and designs for studying LAC are presented.

The conservation of our planet's natural ecosystems and resources is one of the greatest challenges of the twenty-first century. As most environmental problems are caused by human activities, effective environmental policies depend on reliable and valid information about these behavioral patterns and their determinants. For this reason, the theoretical background, internal logic as well as (dis)advantages of two dominant strategies for assessing environmentally relevant behaviors are presented: the intent- and impact-oriented measurement approaches. We conclude by discussing the measurement of environmental concern and empirical findings regarding the environmental concern–pro-environmental behavior relation.