Individual and collective protective responses during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in 10 different countries: Results from the EUCLID online survey.

BACKGROUND: In times of unprecedented infectious disease threats, it is essential to understand how to increase individual protective behaviors and support for collective measures. The present study therefore examines factors associated with individual and collective pathways. METHODS: Data was collected through an online survey from 4483 participants (70.8% female, M = 41.2 years) across 10 countries from April 15, 2020 to June 2, 2020 as part of the "EUCLID" project (https://euclid.dbvis.de). Structural equation modeling was used to examine individual and collective pathways across and within countries. RESULTS: Overall, the adoption of individual protective behaviors and support for collective measures were high. Risk perception on the individual level and perceived effectiveness at the collective level were positively associated with both individual protective behaviors and support for collective measures. Furthermore, the model explained considerable variance in individual (40.7%) and collective protective behaviors (40.8%) and was largely replicated across countries. CONCLUSIONS: The study extends previous research by demonstrating that individual risk perception and perceived effectiveness of collective measures jointly affect individual protective health behaviors and support for collective measures. These findings highlight the need to jointly consider a variety of behavioral actions against infectious disease threats, acknowledging interactions between individual and collective pathways.

The Role of Personal Risk Experience-An Investigation of Health and Terrorism Risk Perception in Germany and Israel.

The present study examined the relationship between risk experience and risk perceptions in relation to the target (risk to the self vs. others) and for two different types of risk: acute risks (i.e., terrorist attacks) and cumulative health risks (i.e., alcohol consumption, tobacco consumption, and unhealthy eating) in two countries (Israel and Germany). An online survey (N = 571) was conducted to assess participants' previous personal experience with acute and cumulative risks and their personal and general risk perceptions. The results showed that personal experience with terrorism was related to increased personal and general risk perceptions, while personal experience with cumulative health risks was related to increased personal but not general risk perceptions. It is argued that an increase in risk perception with more risk experience can be explained by the amount of available information about people's personal as well as other people's risk status. The findings emphasize that the experience-risk perception relationship depends on the target of the risk and the type of risk experience.

Stigmatization of Chinese and Asian-looking people during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany.

BACKGROUND: The outbreak and global spread of COVID-19 was accompanied by an increase in reports of stigmatization of Chinese and Asian-looking people. The behavioral immune system provides a framework for stigmatization in response to infectious disease threats. Specifically, stigmatization might increase with rising levels of infectious disease threat. The present study aimed to examine this hypothesis during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: As part of the "EUCLID" project ( https://euclid.dbvis.de ), a total of 5011 persons from Germany were surveyed via an online-questionnaire between February 2nd and April 3rd, 2020, covering the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic over three time periods which were defined by critical events. RESULTS: There was no evidence for an increase in the stigmatization of Chinese and Asian-looking people across three topics, that is personal proximity, air travel, and medical measures upon arrival from China. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings provide good news in that participants showed an adaptive response to the infectious disease threat rather than displaying increased stigmatization. Further research is necessary to specify the conditions that increase the risk of stigmatization in response to infectious disease threats.

Lack of reassurance after unexpected positive health risk feedback - an analysis of temporal dynamics.

INTRODUCTION: How do people receive unexpected positive health risk information? While common motivational accounts predict acceptance, consistency accounts such as the cue-adaptive reasoning account (CARA) predict a 'lack of reassurance'. OBJECTIVES: We therefore tested (1) whether people prefer striving for positivity or retaining a sense of self-consistency ('lack of reassurance'), and (2) if there are systematic differences in short- and long-term reception, which would indicate temporal dynamics in processing. METHODS: As part of a longitudinal cohort study, participants of a community health screening (N = 1,055) received their actual cholesterol readings. Feedback reception was assessed immediately, at one month and six months. RESULTS: Processing trajectories for unexpected positive feedback showed a significant 'lack of reassurance' effect over time compared with expected positive feedback, while unexpected negative feedback was less threatening than expected negative feedback. CONCLUSIONS: The perseverance of this 'lack of reassurance' over time indicates that striving for consistency in self-views is a robust phenomenon, even if it means forfeiting a better view of one's own health.

Dynamic Risk Perceptions in Times of Avian and Seasonal Influenza Epidemics: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Design.

Infectious diseases pose a serious threat to humans. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how accurately people perceive these risks. However, accuracy can be operationalized differently depending on the standard of comparison. The present study investigated accuracy in risk perceptions for three infectious diseases (avian influenza, seasonal influenza, common cold) using three different standards for accuracy: Social comparison (self vs. others' risk perceptions), general problem level (risk perceptions for diseases with varying threat levels), and dynamic problem level (risk perceptions during epidemics/seasons vs. nonepidemic/off-season times). Four online surveys were conducted using a repeated cross-sectional design. Two surveys were conducted during epidemics/seasons of avian influenza, seasonal influenza, and common cold in 2006 (n = 387) and 2016 (n = 370) and two surveys during nonepidemic/off-season times for the three diseases in 2009 (n = 792) during a swine flu outbreak and in 2018 (n = 422) during no outbreak of zoonotic influenza. While on average participants felt less at risk than others, indicating an optimistic bias, risk perceptions matched the magnitude of risk associated with the three infectious diseases. Importantly, a significant three-way interaction indicated dynamic accuracy in risk perceptions: Participants felt more at risk for seasonal influenza and common cold during influenza and cold seasons, compared with off-season times. However, these dynamic increases were more pronounced in the perceived risk for others than for oneself (optimistic bias). The results emphasize the importance of using multiple approaches to assess accuracy of risk perception as they provided different information on how accurately people gauge their risk when facing infectious diseases.

The Relation of Threat Level and Age With Protective Behavior Intentions During Covid-19 in Germany.

To contain the spread of Covid-19, engagement in protective behaviors across the population is of great importance. The present study investigated protective behavior intentions during the early phases of Covid-19 in Germany (February 2-April 3, 2020) as a function of threat level and age using data from 4,940 participants in the EUCLID project. Results indicated that the intention to engage in social distancing increased sharply with threat level. Intentions for personal hygiene also increased, although to a lesser extent. While age only had a small overall effect on behavioral intentions, differential patterns emerged. After the lockdown was introduced, the impact of age decreased for social distancing and hygiene behavior intentions but increased for seeing a doctor. Since containing the Covid-19 pandemic depends on high adoption rates of protective behaviors, future research should track sustained phases of the pandemic, including the easing of restrictions and possible new waves of infections.

An Increase in Vigorous but Not Moderate Physical Activity Makes People Feel They Have Changed Their Behavior.

Objective: While behavioral recommendations regarding physical activity commonly focus on reaching demanding goals by proposing "thresholds," little attention has been paid to the question of how much of a behavioral change is needed to make people feel that they have changed. The present research investigated this relation between actual and felt behavior change. Design: Using data from two longitudinal community samples, Study 1 and Study 2 comprised 614 (63% women) and 398 participants (61% women) with a mean age of 40.9 years (SD = 13.6) and 42.5 years (SD = 13.4), respectively. Using a stage-approach, participants were classified into four groups by asking them at the respective second measurement to indicate whether they had become more physically active since their last participation 6 months ago ("Changers"), they had tried but did not succeed in becoming more physically active ("Attempters"), they were already physically active on a regular basis ("Regular Actives"), or they had not tried to become more physically active ("Non-Attempters"). Physical activity was measured using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), and fitness level was assessed as physical working capacity (PWC) via bicycle ergometry. Mixed ANOVAs including Time and Perceived Change as within and between factors were conducted, followed up by simple effect analyses. Results: Participants stating to have become more active in the past 6 months (Changers) showed a significant increase in vigorous physical activity but not in moderate physical activity, with an average of 6.8 (Study 1) and 10.6 (Study 2) metabolic equivalent value-hours (MET-hours) per week in vigorous activity. Corroborating these findings, objective fitness also significantly increased in the group of Changers. No systematic change in moderate or vigorous physical activity was observed for the three other "non-changer" groups (Regular actives, Attempters, Non-Attempters). Conclusion: The intensity of physical activity is the crucial variable for people's perception of change in physical activity. Moderate physical activity seems not to be perceived as an effective means for behavior change. It thus might fail to unfold sufficient motivational impact, despite its known positive effects on health.