Pancultural nostalgia in action: Prevalence, triggers, and psychological functions of nostalgia across cultures.

Nostalgia is a social, self-relevant, and bittersweet (although mostly positive) emotion that arises when reflecting on fond past memories and serves key psychological functions. The majority of evidence concerning the prevalence, triggers, and functions of nostalgia has been amassed in samples from a handful of largely Western cultures. If nostalgia is a fundamental psychological resource, it should perform similar functions across cultures, although its operational dynamics may be shaped by culture. This study (N = 2,606) examined dispositional nostalgia, self-reported triggers of nostalgia, and functions of experimentally induced nostalgia in young adults across 28 countries and a special administrative region of China (i.e., Hong Kong). Results indicated that nostalgia is frequently experienced across cultures, albeit better valued in more-developed countries (i.e., higher national wealth and life-expectancy). Nostalgia is triggered by psychological threats (especially in warmer countries), sensory stimuli (especially in more-developed countries), and social gatherings (especially in less-developed countries). The positive or negative affect prompted by experimentally induced nostalgia varied by country, but was mild overall. More importantly, recalling a nostalgic (vs. ordinary) memory increased social connectedness, self-continuity, and meaning in life across cultures. In less-developed countries, recalling an ordinary memory also conferred some of these functions, reducing the effect size of nostalgia. Finally, recalling a nostalgic (vs. ordinary) memory augmented state satisfaction with life in countries with lower quality of living (i.e., lower life-expectancy and life-satisfaction). Overall, findings confirm the relevance of nostalgia across a wide range of cultures and indicate cultural nuances in its functioning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Continuities and discontinuities in the cultural evolution of global consciousness.

Global consciousness (GC), encompassing cosmopolitan orientation, global orientations (i.e. openness to multicultural experiences) and identification with all humanity, is a relatively stable individual difference that is strongly associated with pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, less ingroup favouritism and prejudice, and greater pandemic prevention safety behaviours. Little is known about how it is socialized in everyday life. Using stratified samples from six societies, socializing institution factors correlating positively with GC were education, white collar work (and its higher income) and religiosity. However, GC also decreased with increasing age, contradicting a 'wisdom of elders' transmission of social learning, and not replicating typical findings that general prosociality increases with age. Longitudinal findings were that empathy-building, network-enhancing elements like getting married or welcoming a new infant, increased GC the most across a three-month interval. Instrumental gains like receiving a promotion (or getting a better job) also showed positive effects. Less intuitively, death of a close-other enhanced rather than reduced GC. Perhaps this was achieved through the ritualized management of meaning where a sense of the smallness of self is associated with growth of empathy for the human condition, as a more discontinuous or opportunistic form of culture-based learning. This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolution and sustainability: gathering the strands for an Anthropocene synthesis'.

Behavioral evidence for global consciousness transcending national parochialism.

While national parochialism is commonplace, individual differences explain more variance in it than cross-national differences. Global consciousness (GC), a multi-dimensional concept that includes identification with all humanity, cosmopolitan orientation, and global orientation, transcends national parochialism. Across six societies (N = 11,163), most notably the USA and China, individuals high in GC were more generous allocating funds to the other in a dictator game, cooperated more in a one-shot prisoner's dilemma, and differentiated less between the ingroup and outgroup on these actions. They gave more to the world and kept less for the self in a multi-level public goods dilemma. GC profiles showed 80% test-retest stability over 8 months. Implications of GC for cultural evolution in the face of trans-border problems are discussed.

Looking beyond vaccines: Cultural tightness-looseness moderates the relationship between immunization coverage and disease prevention vigilance.

Advancements in vaccination technologies mitigate disease transmission risks but may inadvertently suppress the behavioral immune system, an evolved disease avoidance mechanism. Applying behavioral immune system theory and utilizing robust big data analytics, we examined associations between rising vaccination coverage and government policies, public mobility, and online information seeking regarding disease precautions. We tested whether cultural tightness-looseness moderates the relationship between mass immunization and disease prevention vigilance. Comprehensive time series analyses were conducted using American data (Study 1) and international data (Study 2), employing transfer function modeling, cross-correlation function analysis, and meta-regression analysis. Across both the US and global analyses, as vaccination rates rose over time, government COVID-19 restrictions significantly relaxed, community mobility increased, and online searches for prevention information declined. The relationship between higher vaccination rates and lower disease prevention vigilance was stronger in culturally looser contexts. Results provide initial evidence that mass immunization may be associated with attenuated sensitivity and enhanced flexibility of disease avoidance psychology and actions. However, cultural tightness-looseness significantly moderates this relationship, with tighter cultures displaying sustained vigilance amidst immunization upticks. These findings offer valuable perspectives to inform nuanced policymaking and public health strategies that balance prudent precautions against undue alarm when expanding vaccine coverage worldwide.

Does Religious Worldview Benefit Life Satisfaction? Examination of the Incremental Predictive Power, Underlying Mechanism, and Temporal Relationship in Hong Kong and the USA.

The benefits of religion have predominantly focused on personal religious identities and experiences, while the broader context of religious worldviews remains understudied. Across two quantitative studies, we showed the incremental predictive power of religious worldview and its mechanism among young adults in two societies-the USA (N = 179) and Hong Kong (N = 164). The mediation mechanism with social connectedness was further inferred from a 12-month study among Hong Kong Chinese (N = 133). This research has laid important groundwork for a deeper understanding of how religion shapes our perception of the world and its impact on our well-being.

Social media trust predicts lower COVID-19 vaccination rates and higher excess mortality over 2 years.

Trust plays a crucial role in implementing public health interventions against the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined the prospective associations of interpersonal, institutional, and media trust with vaccination rates and excess mortality over time in two multinational studies. In study 1, we investigated the country-level relationships between interpersonal trust, vaccination rates, and excess mortality across 54 countries. Interpersonal trust at the country level was calculated by aggregating data of 80,317 participants from the World Values Survey in 2017-20. Data on vaccination rates and excess mortality were obtained from the World Health Organization. Our findings indicated that higher levels of interpersonal trust were linked to higher vaccination rates and lower excess mortality rates in both 2020 and 2021. In study 2, we collected data from 18,171 adults in 35 countries/societies, stratified by age, gender, and region of residence. At the country/society level, interpersonal trust and trust in local healthcare facilities, local healthcare services, and healthcare professionals were associated with higher vaccination rates and lower excess mortality, whereas social media trust was associated with lower vaccination rates and higher excess mortality across three time points over 2 years. Our findings are robust when controlling for country-level covariates of the government stringency index, population density, and medical resources (i.e. critical care beds) in both studies.

Beyond the surface: accounting for confounders in understanding the link between collectivism and COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

According to the parasite-stress theory, collectivism serves as a trait of ingroup assortative sociality, providing defense against infectious diseases. This study investigated the association between cultural collectivism and COVID-19 severity at the state (Study 1: N = 51), county (Study 2: N = 3,133), and daily (Study 3: N = 52,806) levels from the beginning of 2020 to the end of 2022. State-level collectivism was assessed using two distinct measures: the U.S. collectivism index, focusing on social interconnectedness and interdependence, and the subjective-culture individualism-collectivism index (reversed), capturing attitudes and beliefs related to religion, abortion, and same-sex marriage. By employing random-intercept multilevel models, the results demonstrated significant and negative effects of state-level collectivism, as measured by the U.S collectivism index, on COVID-19 cases per million, COVID-19 deaths per million, and composite COVID-19 severity index, after controlling for confounding factors, such as socioeconomic development, ecological threats, disease protective behaviors, cultural norms, and political influences. A mini meta-analysis (Study 4: N = 9) confirmed the significance of these effects across studies. These findings supported the proactive role of collectivism in defending against the novel coronavirus in the United States, aligning with the parasite-stress theory of sociality. However, the subjective-culture individualism-collectivism index (reversed) did not exhibit a significant relationship with COVID-19 severity when confounding factors were considered. The high correlation between the subjective-culture individualism-collectivism index (reversed) and the controlled variables suggested shared variance that could diminish its impact on COVID-19 outcomes. Accordingly, the present findings underscore the significance of accounting for confounding factors when examining the association between collectivism and COVID-19 severity at population level. By considering relevant confounding factors, researchers could gain a comprehensive understanding of the complex interplay between cultural collectivism and its influence on COVID-19 severity. Overall, this research contributes to our understanding of how cultural collectivism shapes the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, emphasizing the importance of adjusting for confounding effects in population level studies.

Distressed yet bonded: A longitudinal investigation of the COVID-19 pandemic's silver lining effects on life satisfaction.

It is a common understanding that the 2019 coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) significantly harmed mental health. However, findings on changes in overall life satisfaction have been mixed and inconclusive. To address this puzzling phenomenon, we draw upon the domain-specific perspective of well-being and research on catastrophe compassion and propose that the pandemic can have opposing effects on mental health and communal satisfaction, which then differently relate to people's overall life satisfaction. Longitudinal analyses of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics (HILDA) Survey of Australia (N = 12,093) showed that while there was a greater decrease in mental health in the first COVID-19 pandemic year (2019-2020) than in the previous years (2017-2019), an increase in communal satisfaction also occurred, demonstrating a potential silver lining effect of the pandemic on people's satisfaction with family, community, and neighborhood. Moreover, consistent with socioemotional selectivity theory, changes in mental health, communal satisfaction, and life satisfaction were related to age, such that older adults generally reported less harmful and more beneficial psychological changes. We further found that age was associated with stronger associations of mental health and communal satisfaction with life satisfaction during the pandemic year. Overall, our findings speak to the importance of communal life in life satisfaction during the pandemic and age-related differences in the process, shedding light on the need to devise customized support to address inequalities in pandemic effects on public well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Who do we trust and how do we cope with COVID-19? A mixed-methods sequential exploratory approach to understanding supportive messages across 35 cultures.

Based upon a mixed-methods follow-up exploratory model, we examined the link between trust and coping during the early outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic at the society level. Qualitative data were collected from the supportive messages written by 10,072 community adults across 35 societies. Trust and coping were used as the two pre-defined themes in the conceptual content analysis. Five subthemes emerged from the theme trust, depicting five distinct trusted targets: God, a larger us, country/government, science/healthcare, and the affected. Six subthemes emerged from the theme coping, depicting six distinct coping strategies: interpersonal/social coping, religious/spiritual coping, acceptance, blame, wishful thinking, and strength-based coping. A follow-up quantitative investigation also showed that four society-level factors (viz., individualism, cultural tightness, globalization, and severity of pandemic) had differential effects on people's trusted targets and ways of coping with the pandemic. Our study made both methodological and practical contributions to cross-cultural research on COVID-19 by using a mixed-methods approach in a multinational study and demonstrating the importance of making meaningful virtual connection during a time of physical distancing.

Global Consciousness Predicts Behavioral Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Empirical Evidence From 35 Cultures.

COVID-19 has drastically changed human behaviors and posed a threat to globalism by spurring a resurgence of nationalism. Promoting prosocial behavior within and across borders is of paramount importance for global cooperation to combat pandemics. To examine both self-report and actual prosocial behavior, we conducted the first empirical test of global consciousness theory in a multinational study of 35 cultures (N = 18,171 community adults stratified by age, gender, and region of residence). Global consciousness encompassed cosmopolitan orientation, identification with all humanity, and multicultural acquisition, whereas national consciousness reflected ethnic protection. Both global consciousness and national consciousness positively predicted perceived risk of coronavirus and concern about coronavirus, after controlling for interdependent self-construal. While global consciousness positively predicted prosocial behavior in response to COVID-19, national consciousness positively predicted defensive behavior. These findings shed light on overcoming national parochialism and provide a theoretical framework for the study of global unity and cooperation.

How does social complexity facilitate coping flexibility? The mediating role of dialectical thinking.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Past research has shown that worldviews can influence coping strategies but coping is often regarded as a stable person-based behavioral characteristic. The present research aims to examine how one component of worldviews - social complexity - influences the flexibility of coping strategies across situations. DESIGN: In two cross-sectional studies and one prospective study, we tested a mediation model in which the perceived complexity of the social world (i.e., social complexity) predicted coping flexibility through dialectical thinking. RESULTS: Across three studies, social complexity consistently facilitated dialectical thinking, which in turn fostered the cross-situational flexibility of coping strategies at a single time point and over 12 months. CONCLUSIONS: Believing in complex causes of phenomena and multiple solutions to problems facilitates a cognitive style of viewing issues from multiple perspectives and tolerating contradictions, which are conducive to the flexible evaluation and implementation of effective strategies to cope with problems. Theoretical and practical implications of the present research are discussed.

Toward a better understanding of cultural change: Reply to Bao et al. (2022).

Bao et al. (2022) criticize the method, analysis, and conclusion of Hamamura et al. (2021). In this reply, we respond to their three critiques. We trust that this constructive exchange further facilitates our understanding of cultural changes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Relationships between global orientations and attitudes toward integration policies: A sequential explanatory mixed methods approach.

OBJECTIVES: Based upon a mixed methods follow-up explanation model, the present research examined the relationships between global orientations and the attitudes toward integration policies among both locals (majority group) and South Asians (minority group) in Hong Kong. METHODS: In Study 1, quantitative data were collected from a community sample of 1,614 adults comprising 1,007 locals and 607 South Asians in three minority groups (Indians, Nepalese, and Pakistanis). In Study 2, a follow-up explanation phase of qualitative investigation was conducted, with 12 in-depth semistructured focus group discussions among seven locals and 49 South Asians, generating three main themes and six subthemes. RESULTS: Quantitative results showed that the positive link between multicultural acquisition and instrumental integration policies was significantly stronger for South Asians than for locals, and that ethnic protection was negatively associated with a positive attitude toward symbolic integration policies in the majority group but had no effects in the minority group. The three main themes generated from the qualitative results include alleviating minority disadvantage, preserving majority privilege, and embracing diversity for the common good. CONCLUSIONS: The combined quantitative and qualitative results suggest that the differential relationships of multicultural acquisition and ethnic protection with support for specific integration policies can be understood with the underlying structural power asymmetry between the majority and minority groups. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Self-Change in Close Relationships: Evidence From Hong Kong Chinese and European Americans.

Three studies examined cultural perceptions of self-change in romantic relationships. In Study 1 (N = 191), Chinese participants perceived hypothetical couples who changed for the sake of the relationship to have better relationship quality than couples who did not, compared to European American participants. In Study 2 (N = 396), Chinese individuals in a dating relationship were more likely to perceive that they had changed in the relationship, and self-change was a stronger predictor of relationship quality for them than for American dating individuals. In Study 3 (N = 115 dyads), Chinese married couples perceived greater self-change, and their perceived self-change was due in part to higher endorsement of dutiful adjustment beliefs than American couples. Self-change was a stronger predictor of relationship quality for Chinese married couples than American couples. Our studies provide support for cultural differences in the role of self-change in romantic relationships, which have implications for partner regulation and relationship counseling across cultures.

Individualism with Chinese characteristics? Discerning cultural shifts in China using 50 years of printed texts.

This project examined cultural changes in terms of individualism-collectivism in China between 1950 and 1999 focusing on cultural associations that are discernible through analysis of language use. Drawing on algorithms in natural language processing (NLP) that numerically represent word meanings in a high-dimensional space, we examined patterns of word similarity for words indicating individualism and collectivism in Chinese. This methodology enables researchers of cultural change to investigate questions that were difficult to examine before. We examined four such questions pertaining to individualism-collectivism cultural change in China. The data spanning five decades found no evidence of Chinese culture becoming more positively disposed to individualism over time. Another finding suggested a continuing cultural association between collectivism and some life domains, work in particular. These findings suggest that rising individualism is not a universal consequence of societal modernization and that collectivism in China may be self-sustaining. The data also indicate that the Chinese language might have become more differentiated and complex in its discourse on individualism and collectivism. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Dual impacts of coronavirus anxiety on mental health in 35 societies.

The spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected both physical health and mental well-being around the world. Stress-related reactions, if prolonged, may result in mental health problems. We examined the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in a multinational study and explored the effects of government responses to the outbreak. We sampled 18,171 community adults from 35 countries/societies, stratified by age, gender, and region of residence. Across the 35 societies, 26.6% of participants reported moderate to extremely severe depression symptoms, 28.2% moderate to extremely severe anxiety symptoms, and 18.3% moderate to extremely severe stress symptoms. Coronavirus anxiety comprises two factors, namely Perceived Vulnerability and Threat Response. After controlling for age, gender, and education level, perceived vulnerability predicted higher levels of negative emotional symptoms and psychological distress, whereas threat response predicted higher levels of self-rated health and subjective well-being. People in societies with more stringent control policies had more threat response and reported better subjective health. Coronavirus anxiety exerts detrimental effects on subjective health and well-being, but also has the adaptive function in mobilizing safety behaviors, providing support for an evolutionary perspective on psychological adaptation.

Effects of containment and closure policies on controlling the COVID-19 pandemic in East Asia.

Growing efforts have been made to pool coronavirus data and control measures from countries and regions to compare the effectiveness of government policies. We examine whether these strategies can explain East Asia's effective control of the COVID-19 pandemic based on time-series data with cross-correlations between the Stringency Index and number of confirmed cases during the early period of outbreaks. We suggest that multidisciplinary empirical research in healthcare and social sciences, personality, and social psychology is needed for a clear understanding of how cultural values, social norms, and individual predispositions interact with policy to affect life-saving behavioural changes in different societies.

Does Believing in Fate Facilitate Active or Avoidant Coping? The Effects of Fate Control on Coping Strategies and Mental Well-Being.

The development of control-related constructs has involved different approaches over time, and yet internal and external locus of control are conceptualized as dichotomous factors influencing active versus avoidant coping strategies. While external control is associated with avoidance, a similar belief construct fate control, which denotes that life events are pre-determined and influenced by external forces but predictable and alterable, challenges the assumption of incompatibility between fate and agency. To develop a dynamic model of control, we suggest that external control would affect avoidant coping, which in turn would affect psychological distress, whereas fate control would affect both active and avoidant coping when dealing with stress. The model was supported among Hong Kong Chinese using a cross-sectional approach in Study 1 (n = 251) and hypothetical stressful scenarios in Study 2 (n = 294). The moderating effect of perceived controllability was observed in coping behaviors using a diary approach in Study 3 (n = 188). Our findings offer an alternative perspective to the dichotomous view of control and provide implications for coping strategies and mental well-being.

Is Gratitude Always Beneficial to Interpersonal Relationships? The Interplay of Grateful Disposition, Grateful Mood, and Grateful Expression Among Married Couples.

A growing body of research has documented positive outcomes of gratitude in personal and interpersonal domains. To uncover the dynamic process of gratitude and relational well-being, we examined the interplay of grateful disposition, grateful mood, and grateful expression in ongoing close relationships. Hong Kong Chinese couples (n = 100) participated in a three-wave study across three consecutive weeks. Adopting the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model, we found that at Time 1, grateful disposition not only predicted one's own grateful mood but also the perceived grateful mood of one's spouse, both of which predicted marital satisfaction. At Time 2, the couples were randomly assigned to two conditions over 2 weeks: having one spouse keeping a private gratitude journal or overtly expressing gratitude to the other. Couples' grateful mood increased at Time 3, indicating the effectiveness of both interventions. However, the resulting changes in marital satisfaction differed for the beneficiaries (enactors) and benefactors (targets), such that husbands who perceived their wife's expressed gratitude as less sincere declined in their marital satisfaction. The results reveal the boundary conditions in evaluating expressions of gratitude and improvement of relationships and provide implications for social exchange and couple therapy.

A cross-cultural examination on global orientations and moral foundations.

Although there is a flourishing literature on the psychology of globalization and the psychology of morality, respectively, the moral dimension has been largely absent in the discourse of globalization psychology. Our current work attempts to fill this gap by establishing a conceptual and empirical link between global orientations and moral foundations. Our results indicated that (1) multicultural acquisition was positively linked with both individualizing and binding values; (2) ethnic protection was positively linked with only binding values; and (3) the relation patterns between global orientations and moral foundations were essentially congruent across cultures albeit with some cultural variations. Our findings provide direct evidence to map out the relation patterns between how people mentally cope with globalization and their explicit moral matrices.