Coping with Coronavirus Pandemic: Risk Perception Predicts Life Optimism.

Given that the coronavirus pandemic has become a severe concern worldwide, how can optimism be maintained during an outbreak of a collective pandemic? We propose that perceived control and negative affect could be potential explanatory factors for optimism in the face of a pandemic. In Study 1 (N = 599), through a large-scale cross-sectional design, we showed the indirect effect of risk perception on optimism through perceived control and negative affect with structural equation modeling. In Study 2 (N = 191), we manipulated perceived risk of the pandemic and determined that experiencing a high-risk pandemic psychologically led to decreased optimism. Finally, through Study 3 (N = 186) and Study 4 (N = 217), we revealed that the effect of risk perception on optimism can be extended to overall subjective well-being and confirmed the indirect effects via perceived control and negative affect. These findings indicate that risk perception can make a difference in one's life optimism during a high-risk pandemic. Moreover, perceived control and negative affect are notable intermediary variables. Measures that strengthen publicity and transparency regarding recovery rates should be taken to help reduce public perceptions of risk and promote an optimistic life attitude.

Stand up to action: The postural effect of moral dilemma decision-making and the moderating role of dual processes.

Previous studies have demonstrated the possibility that when people are in standing rather than sitting postures, they have a stronger cognitive control propensity, making them inclined to agree more to sacrificing one innocent person and saving more people. Furthermore, this postural effect can be moderated by dual processes. In three studies, participants read dilemma scenarios followed by a proposed behavior to sacrifice one innocent person and save five or more people. The participants in sitting or standing postures were asked whether the described action was morally acceptable (moral judgment) and whether they would perform the described action (moral action). The results demonstrated that participants were more approving of the behavioral proposal in the moral action perspective than in the moral judgment perspective across the three studies. The hypothesized postural effect was found in a field study (Study 1) and replicated in a preregistered replication study (Study 2), and was further supported in an experimental study (Study 3). Compared with those in sitting postures, participants in standing postures expressed higher approval of the behavioral proposal compared to their sitting counterparts. Furthermore, the postural effect was dismissed when participants made moral decisions with a dual task to increase cognitive load, and it was reversed when they made moral decisions after deliberate consideration of the behavioral proposal (Study 3). The present research supports and extends the dual-process morality theory by demonstrating that body posture can affect moral decision-making; it also offers novel evidence revealing the moderating role of dual process on embodiment effects. It enriches our knowledge that morality is evolutionarily embodied in postures and that the dual process can moderate embodiment effects.

Buying to Cope With Scarcity During Public Emergencies: A Serial Mediation Model Based on Cognition-Affect Theory.

Panic buying is a common phenomenon that occurs during public emergencies and has a significant undesirable impact on society. This research explored the effect of scarcity on panic buying and the role of perceived control and panic in this effect through big data, an online survey and behavior experiments in a real public emergency (i.e., COVID-19) and simulative public emergencies. The findings showed that scarcity aggravates panic buying (Studies 1-3), and this aggravation effect is serially mediated by perceived control and panic (Studies 2-3). Moreover, this serial mediation model is more suitable for public health emergencies (Study 3). These findings enrich the understanding of panic buying and provide important enlightenment for guiding rational public behavior and managing public opinion during public emergencies.

Food Sharing With Choice: Influence on Social Evaluation.

We conducted two studies to investigate the influence of food sharing on people's social evaluation. In Study 1, the results of an online survey revealed that Chinese adults expected voluntary food sharing to influence the recipient's social evaluation of the sharer. In Study 2, we ran a laboratory-based experiment in which each participant broke bread with one of two unacquainted individuals. When the participants could choose whom to share food with, they rated the selected person as being more prosocial than the person they did not choose. These results demonstrate the influence of voluntary food sharing with choice on people's social evaluation of unacquainted individuals, and shed some light on the influence of eating behavior on social perception.

CAN Algorithm: An Individual Level Approach to Identify Consequence and Norm Sensitivities and Overall Action/Inaction Preferences in Moral Decision-Making.

Recently, a multinomial process tree model was developed to measure an agent's consequence sensitivity, norm sensitivity, and generalized inaction/action preferences when making moral decisions (CNI model). However, the CNI model presupposed that an agent considers consequences-norms-generalized inaction/action preferences sequentially, which is untenable based on recent evidence. Besides, the CNI model generates parameters at the group level based on binary categorical data. Hence, the C/N/I parameters cannot be used for correlation analyses or other conventional research designs. To solve these limitations, we developed the CAN algorithm to compute norm and consequence sensitivities and overall action/inaction preferences algebraically in a parallel manner. We re-analyzed the raw data of the original CNI model to test the methodological predictions. Our results demonstrate that: (1) the C parameter is approximately equal between the CNI model and CAN algorithm; (2) the N parameter under the CNI model approximately equals N/(1 - C) under the CAN algorithm; (3) the I parameter and A parameter are reversed around 0.5 - the larger the I parameter, the more the generalized inaction versus action preference and the larger the A parameter, the more overall action versus inaction preference; (4) tests of differences in parameters between groups with the CNI model and CAN algorithm led to almost the same statistical conclusion; (5) parameters from the CAN algorithm can be used for correlational analyses and multiple comparisons, and this is an advantage over the parameters from the CNI model. The theoretical and methodological implications of our study were also discussed.

The Structure of the Chinese Material Value Scale: An Eastern Cultural View.

This study investigated the structure of the Chinese Material Value Scale (MVS). A two-factor structure, rather than the original three-factor structure, was proposed for China by means of confirmatory factor analysis. Direct evidence showed that the dimensions of success and happiness could be merged together. Both explicit and implicit methods were used to examine the relationship between success and happiness based on possession. In particular, as an implicit method, the dot-probe paradigm recording participants' response time supported the idea that the two-factors could be merged together. The results also showed that for Chinese people, success to an extent means happiness, while the converse is not necessarily true. Chinese are much more concerned about social evaluation than their own feelings, and this cultural characteristic is reflected in our findings.

Enabling Delay of Gratification Behavior in Those Not So Predisposed: The Moderating Role of Social Support.

The presence of delay of gratification (DG) in childhood is correlated with success later in a person's life. Is there any way of helping adults with a low level of DG to obtain similar success? The present research examines how social support helps those low in DG nonetheless to act similarly to those high in DG. This research includes both correlational studies and experiments that manipulate social support as well as both field studies and a laboratory study. The results show that with high social support, employees (Study 1) and university students (Study 2) low in DG report vocational and academic DG behavioral intentions, respectively, similar to those high in DG. Study 3 found that participants low in DG who were primed with high social support expressed job-choice DG similar to those high in the DG. Study 4 controlled for mood and self-image and found that participants low in DG who were primed with high social support expressed more money-choice DG than those high in the DG. Study 5 showed that social support moderated the relationship between DG and actual DG behaviors. These findings provide evidence for a moderating role of social support in the expression of DG behavior.

Adjusting to death: the effects of mortality salience and self-esteem on psychological well-being, growth motivation, and maladaptive behavior.

This research builds on terror management theory to examine the relationships among self-esteem, death cognition, and psychological adjustment. Self-esteem was measured (Studies 1-2, 4-8) or manipulated (Study 3), and thoughts of death were manipulated (Studies 1-3, 5-8) or measured (Study 4). Subsequently, satisfaction with life (Study 1), subjective vitality (Study 2), meaning in life (Studies 3-5), positive and negative affect (Studies 1, 4, 5), exploration (Study 6), state anxiety (Study 7), and social avoidance (Study 8) were assessed. Death-related cognition (a) decreased satisfaction with life, subjective vitality, meaning in life, and exploration; (b) increased negative affect and state anxiety; and (c) exacerbated social avoidance for individuals with low self-esteem but not for those with high self-esteem. These effects occurred only when death thoughts were outside of focal attention. Parallel effects were found in American (Studies 1-4, 6-8) and Chinese (Study 5) samples.