Are we behaviorally immune to COVID-19 through robots?

In the context of the health risks of the COVID-19 pandemic, tourists' choices have shifted to reflect a subconscious psychological mechanism - the behavioral immune system - that facilitates human organisms to better identify plausible threats to ones' health through environment cues. This research draws upon this theoretical lens to assess tourists' pre-trip hotel evaluation in two 2 × 2 between-subject experiments. Experiment 1 (robot vs. human) tested the service provider's effect on hotel selection evaluation through the mediation of sense of control and the moderation of pandemic risk. Experiment 2 examined this chain of relationship through the moderation of hotel type. This research contributes to the literature by underscoring the pathogen-avoidance mechanism in tourist evaluation and the peril of robotization.

Understanding public opinion regarding organ donation in China: A social media content analysis.

Organ donation provides a life-saving opportunity for patients with organ failure. China, like most countries, is faced with organ shortages. Understanding public opinion regarding organ donation in China is critical to ensure an increased donation rate. Our study explored public concerns and attitudes toward organ donation, factors involved, and how the public pays attention to organ donation. Sixteen million users' public information (i.e. gender, age, and geographic information) and posts from January 2017 to December 2017 were collected from Weibo, a social media platform. Of these, 1755 posts related to organ donation were included in the analysis. We categorized the posts and coded the users' attitudes toward organ donation and the associations between the demographics. The most popular posts mentioning organ donation were "publicly expressing the willingness to donate organs." Furthermore, 87.62% of posts exhibited a positive attitude toward organ donation, whereas only 7.44% exhibited a negative attitude. Most positive posts were "saluting the organ donors," and most negative posts involved "fear of the family's passive medical decision." There was no significant gender difference in the users' attitudes, but older people generally had a more negative attitude. Users with negative attitudes mainly distrust the medical system and are worried that the donated organs may be used in improper trading. Social media may be an important channel for promoting organ donation activities, and it is important to popularize scientific knowledge related to organ donation in order to eliminate the public's misunderstanding of organ donation and transplantation.

Does Science Literacy Guarantee Resistance to Health Rumors? The Moderating Effect of Self-Efficacy of Science Literacy in the Relationship between Science Literacy and Rumor Belief.

Health rumors not only incite unnecessary fears and skepticism, but may also cause individuals to refuse effective remedy and thus delay their treatment. Studies have found that health literacy may help the public identify the falsity of health rumors and avoid their negative impact. However, whether other types of literacy work in helping people disbelieve health rumors is still unknown. With a national survey in China (N = 1646), our study examined the effect of science literacy on rumor belief and further analyzed the moderating role of self-efficacy of science literacy in their relationship. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that science literacy significantly decreased the likelihood of people believing in health rumors, and moderator analysis showed that self-efficacy of science literacy plays a moderating role in this relationship; such that the relationship between science literacy and health rumor belief would be weakened if one's self-efficacy of science literacy was low. This finding reveals that during campaigns to combat health rumors, improving and enhancing the self-efficacy of people's science literacy is an effective way to prevent them from believing in health rumors. Our study highlights the benefits of science education in public health and the improvement of public science literacy.

Nostalgia promotes help seeking by fostering social connectedness.

Individuals are often reluctant to seek help from others. Nostalgia is a highly social emotion that bolsters perceptions of connectedness with others. In 6 studies, we investigated whether nostalgia reduces individuals' general reluctance to reach out to others for help by virtue of its capacity to strengthen social connectedness (i.e., a sense of acceptance and support). In a preliminary study, we measured nostalgia, 6 comparator emotions, and help seeking. Nostalgia predicted help seeking, independently of the comparator emotions. In Experiments 1 through 4, we induced nostalgia (vs. control) and subsequently measured self-reported help seeking (Experiments 1 through 2), help-seeking behavior (Experiments 3 through 4), and social connectedness (Experiments 2 and 4). Nostalgia increased self-reported help seeking (Experiments 1 and 2) and help-seeking behavior (Experiments 3 and 4), and these effects were mediated by social connectedness (Experiments 2 and 4). In Experiment 5, we manipulated the social content of nostalgic reflections and measured help-seeking behavior. Nostalgia pertaining to social (but not to nonsocial) past events increased help seeking. In all, nostalgia is a resource that facilitates help seeking by fostering social connectedness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).