The effect of messaging and gender on intentions to wear a face covering to slow down COVID-19 transmission

If you are looking for guidance on better online meetings you’ve come to the right place! In the current ever changing circumstances we need to be able to adapt and change. While standard face-to-face meetings and workshops are currently not an option, we know that these can be done online instead! Our free guide on better online meetings can be downloaded from our website for free, here. This first edition had to be done at speed in response to a plea for help by leaders of nature organisations.  It has got plenty of hints and tips to help you up your skills….. whether you are new to this game or an  old hand at online meetings.

Changing Times: Moving to Online Meetings & Workshops

As we start to recover from #coronavirus, we all need to play our part by following the rules. This is how to #StayAlert

The rapid redeployment of the infection control website ‘Germ Defence’ in response to COVID-19 can play an important role in changing people’s behaviours and cutting infection, say researchers.

Roll-out of coronavirus behaviour change website will help public transition to ‘new normal’

10.31234/osf.io/g549x

The rapid spread of the COVID-19 has triggered a worldwide epidemic emergency which is an international concern given that it poses several challenges to physical and mental health of humans across the globe. Like businesses and universities, schools around the world have been closed and children must remain at home during this pandemic. However, social isolation could have a negative impact on young children’s wellbeing and if not addressed properly, it could trigger long-term negative effects in their mental health. However, little is known about the psychological impact of social isolation during COVID-19 on young children’s mental health and to date, there are no specific guidelines regarding effective psychological strategies that could support children’s wellbeing. Drawing form existing research on social isolation, this review aims to synthesise previous literature to explore the negative impact of social isolation in young children and offer a comprehensive set of evidence-informed recommendations for parents and professionals to safeguard the mental health of young children currently on lockdown across the globe.

Young Children’s Mental Health: Impact of Social Isolation During The COVID-19 Lockdown and Effective Strategies

This site lays out the evidence and facts about the virus, the disease, the epidemic, and its control

Coronavirus: the science explained

10.31234/osf.io/7thku

Changes to our social settings caused by migration, cultural change or pandemics mean that we must learn and adapt to new social norms. Building on the notion that social norms provide a group of individuals with behavioural prescriptions and therefore can be inferred from individuals’ behaviour, I examined how two features of the behavioural patterns of social norms— saliency and valence —affect learning and adaptation. Using a multiplayer star-harvest game, I found that participants initially complied with a variety of social norms exhibited by the other players in the game. Yet after gaining experience with competitive norms, participants did not adapt their behaviour when playing with polite players. This lack of adaptation was explained by the combined contribution of an active and salient behavioural pattern and its negative outcome for others. A computational model fitting procedure suggested that saliency affected learning rates as players learned more from active behaviour than from passive behaviour, while negative outcomes were more readily generalized from one player to others. These results provide a novel cognitive foundation for social norm learning and adaptation and can inform future investigations of cross-cultural differences and social adaptation.

Cognitive learning processes account for asymmetries in adaptations to new social norms

10.31234/osf.io/kjzsp

As the current pandemic situation evolves, urges have been made to focus efforts toward examining the mental health status of the general population. This large-scale epidemiological investigation assesses the prevalence of depression and anxiety associated with the mitigation strategies aimed at impeding viral transmission chains during the COVID-19 pandemic. A representative sample of 10084 adults participated in the study. The results reveal that the globally ubiquitous mitigation strategies involving lockdowns, social distancing, quarantine, and isolation are associated with two to threefold increases in anxiety and depression symptoms. Risk factors and protective factors associated with these psychiatric symptoms were identified. Finally, factors associated with adherence rates to these mitigation strategies were investigated. The presented time-sensitive findings provide health-policy makers and government officials with a foundation for making informed decisions concerning the mental health impacts of the contemporaneously in-practice disease containment strategies, and suggests ways of increasing adherence to these protocols while simultaneously protecting the general public against detrimental mental health effects.

The mental health impact of non-pharmacological interventions aimed at impeding viral transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic in a general adult population and the factors associated with adherence to these mitigation strategies

10.31234/osf.io/4tcv5

Research has demonstrated that situational factors such as perceived threats to the social order activate latent authoritarianism. The deadly COVID-19 pandemic presents a rare opportunity to test whether existential threat stemming from an indiscriminate virus moderates the relationship between authoritarianism and political attitudes toward the nation and outgroups. Using data from a large, nationally representative sample of adults in the UK (N = 2,025) collected during the first week of strict lockdown measures (23-28 March 2020), we find that the associations between right-wing authoritarianism and 1) nationalism and 2) anti-immigrant attitudes are conditional on levels of perceived threat. As anxiety about the COVID-19 pandemic increases, so too does the effect of right-wing authoritarianism on those political outcomes. Thus, it appears that grave threats to humanity from the COVID-19 pandemic activate authoritarians in society, which in turn, shifts opinion toward nationalistic and anti-immigrant sentiments.

The Authoritarian Dynamic During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Effects on Nationalism and Anti-Immigrant Sentiment

10.31234/osf.io/8c6nh

Large-scale health crises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, may evoke negative affective responses, which are closely linked to psychological maladjustment and psychopathology. Here, we shed light on the role of the personality trait neuroticism in predicting who is at risk and why. In a large-scale experience-sampling study based on a German convenience sample (N = 1,609; 38,120 momentary reports), individuals high in neuroticism experienced more negative affect in their daily lives during the Covid-19 pandemic. The effects of neuroticism on negative affect were substantially stronger than those of sociodemographic factors and personally experienced health threats. Underlying mechanisms included (a) higher attention to Covid-19-related information and higher engagement in Covid-19-related worries (crisis preoccupation), and (b) stronger negative affect during this preoccupation (affective reactivity). These findings highlight that global pandemics put not only people’s physical health at stake but also their psychological well-being and offer concrete starting points for large-scale prevention efforts.

Neuroticism and Emotional Risk During the Covid-19 Pandemic

10.31234/osf.io/jsuyg

Results of a three-wave longitudinal study conducted in the first four weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland (N = 889) indicate that right wing-authoritarianism increased as the pandemic unfolded, predicting significant growth in national cohesion and in the belief that non-traditional women and sexual minorities threaten the national survival. Latent growth curve modeling indicated linear, inter-related increases in those variables (but not in self-reported political conservatism, social dominance orientation, ambivalent sexism or outgroup hostility) across the three waves. Cross-lagged panel analysis supported the predicted directionality of the relationships. The results are in line with terror management theory predicting that self-continuity concerns increased under mortality salience should motivate investment in cohesive groups and rejection of those dissenters who threaten the prospects of national survival. The results are also in line with findings that the threat of infectious disease increases conformity and ingroup cohesion and sexual prejudice.

Sexual Prejudice and Concerns of National Survival in Poland during the COVID-19 Pandemic

In the context of Covid-19 pandemic, barrier gestures such as regular hand washing, social distancing, and wearing face mask are highly recommended. Critically, interpersonal distances depend on the physical and emotional dimensions involved in social interaction, two factors that might be affected by the current Covid-19 context. In the present internet-based experimental study, we analyzed the preferred interpersonal distance of 461 participants, when facing a virtual character either wearing a face mask or displaying a neutral, happy or angry facial expression. The results showed that interpersonal distance is significantly reduced when the characters wear a face mask compared to other conditions. Importantly, it was also reduced in participants already infected with Covid-19, or living in a low-risk area. The present findings are of dramatic importance as they indicate that the general requirement to wear a mask in social contexts can have deleterious effects, interfering with social distancing recommendations.

10.31234/osf.io/ubzea

Beware of virus! Wearing a face mask against COVID-19 results in a reduction of social distancing

10.1038/s41562-020-0887-9

Human behaviour is central to transmission of SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and changing behaviour is crucial to preventing transmission in the absence of pharmaceutical interventions. Isolation and social distancing measures, including edicts to stay at home, have been brought into place across the globe to reduce transmission of the virus, but at a huge cost to individuals and society. In addition to these measures, we urgently need effective interventions to increase adherence to behaviours that individuals in communities can enact to protect themselves and others: use of tissues to catch expelled droplets from coughs or sneezes, use of face masks as appropriate, hand-washing on all occasions when required, disinfecting objects and surfaces, physical distancing, and not touching one’s eyes, nose or mouth. There is an urgent need for direct evidence to inform development of such interventions, but it is possible to make a start by applying behavioural science methods and models.

Applying principles of behaviour change to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission

arXiv:2005.02816v1

Social distancing is crucial for preventing the spread of viral diseases illnesses such as COVID-19. By minimizing the closely physical contact between people, we can reduce chances of catching the virus and spreading it to the community. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive survey on how emerging technologies, e.g., wireless and networking, AI can enable, encourage, and even enforce social distancing. To that end, we provide a fundamental background of social distancing including basic concepts, measurements, models and propose practical scenarios. We then discuss enabling wireless technologies which are especially effective and can be widely adopted in practice to keep distance and monitor people. After that, emerging technologies such as machine learning, computer vision, thermal, ultrasound, etc., are introduced. These technologies open many new solutions and directions to deal with problems in social distancing, e.g., symptom prediction, detection and monitoring quarantined people, and contact tracing. Finally, we provide important open issues and challenges (e.g., privacy-preserving, cybersecurity) in implementing social distancing in practice.

Enabling and Emerging Technologies for Social Distancing: A Comprehensive Survey

10.31234/osf.io/wmfde

Introducción: La tecnología evoluciona exponencialmente y la relación médico-paciente no ha permanecido inmutable. La consulta no presencial se torna más frecuente cada vez. Objetivos: explorar la experiencia de la consulta virtual desde el punto de vista del paciente y del profesional. Metodología: Estudio observacional, exploratorio, descriptivo y transversal mediante encuesta online Resultados: 96,9% (n=94) de los profesionales encuestados reciben consultas de pacientes en su teléfono particular; 95,9% (n=93) utiliza aplicaciones de mensajería en la comunicación con sus pacientes. Estas consultas no presenciales les resultan siempre intrusivas a un 28.9% de los psiquiatras, y a un 52.6% a veces. 67% de los profesionales manifestó preocupación por las posibles consecuencias médico - legales de dichas consultas. Entre los pacientes encuestados, un 39.3% (N=35) refirió haber realizado consultas no presenciales a su médico en los últimos 30 días, de las cuales solo 33% fueron motivadas por situaciones de urgencia

El whatsapp en la relación médico paciente: Intruso o aliado?

10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30372-8

A randomised controlled trial1Cao B Wang Y Wen D et al.A trial of lopinavir–ritonavir in adults hospitalized with severe Covid-19.N Engl J Med. 2020; (published online March 18.)DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2001282Crossref Google Scholar found no significant benefit of lopinavir-ritonavir over placebo in patients with severe corona-virus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Even though lopinavir-ritonavir might not be efficacious in cases of severe COVID-19, we postulate that similar treatments to these antivirals, which also effectively inhibit viral replication, will be more effective in preventing disease progression if used to treat mild disease than if used to treat severe disease. We encourage randomised trials to assess antiviral drugs for the treatment of mild COVID-19.Similar to influenza, we propose that antiviral drugs for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 are probably most effective if administered soon after symptom onset, when viral replication is likely to be an important driver of pathogenesis. For example, oseltamivir has shown benefits over placebo in patients with influenza if administered less than 48 h after the onset of symptoms. By contrast, administration of this influenza neuraminidase inhibitor more than 48 h after symptom onset showed no significant benefit over placebo. Likewise, baloxavir, which targets the cap-dependent endonuclease, was more effective when given to patients with influenza within 24 h of symptom onset than when given to patients after 24 h of symptom onset.2

Testing COVID-19 therapies to prevent progression of mild disease

10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30373-X

On March 6, 2020, the first case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was officially reported in Cameroon.1Tih F Cameroon confirms first coronavirus case.https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/cameroon-confirms-first-coronavirus-case/1756866Date: March 6, 2020Date accessed: April 28, 2020Google Scholar As of April 25, 2020, the number of cases had increased to 1569, with 53 deaths,2UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian AffairsCameroon: COVID-19 rapport de situation no 21_23–25 April 2020.https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/op%C3%A9rations/cameroon/document/cameroon-covid-19-rapport-de-situation-n%C2%B02123-25-avril-2020Date: April 27, 2020Date accessed: April 29, 2020Google Scholar indicating an exponential growth in the number of cases. Although these numbers already sound shocking, the truth is that they are an underestimation because the diagnostic system for COVID-19 in Cameroon is not robust. Realistic projections in this context suggest approximately 14 000 cases of COVID-19 in the country.A series of infection control measures have been implemented by the Government of Cameroon, including hygienic measures (eg, systematic hand washing), physical distancing, closure of all educational facilities and international borders, interministerial consultations that included the input of development partners, and financial measures allocated to implement this response. The university research community and national media outlets helped to develop and implement these measures alongside medical practitioners.3

COVID-19 in Cameroon: a crucial equation to resolve

10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30194-2

“For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.” This Biblical verse, Matthew 13:12, provides a rare modern-day example of religion informing science—and Science—in the form of sociologist Robert K Merton's article in a 1968 issue of that prestigious journal. Merton proposed the existence of what he called “The Matthew effect” in scientific research: one that “may serve to heighten the visibility of contributions to science by scientists of acknowledged standing and to reduce the visibility of contributions by authors who are less well known.” He added that this principle might apply not only to individual researchers, but also at an institutional level, and hence that “centers of demonstrated scientific excellence are allocated far larger resources for investigation than centers which have yet to make their mark”. 3 years after Merton, researcher and general practitioner Julian Tudor-Hart published an article on “the inverse care law” in The Lancet. He noted “that the availability of good medical care tends to vary inversely with the need of the population served”.This pattern of advantage fuelling advantage, while disadvantage has a vicious cycle of its own, also applies to patient groups: specifically, people living with severe mental illness. Before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the wants and needs of people with diagnoses such as schizophrenia rarely entered into increasing public discussion of mental health issues. Even in professional movements—such as that for global mental health—offering desperately needed help to those experiencing severe mental illness was too often secondary to the more prominent discourse around easily scaled and delivered talking therapies for common mental disorders.

Mental health and COVID-19: change the conversation

As of April 20, 2020, 14 068 people have been infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Africa, of whom 3158 (22·4%) are in South Africa.1WHOCoronavirus (COVID-19).https://www.afro.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus-covid-19Date accessed: April 20, 2020Google Scholar The transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2, combined with the scarcity of crucial health equipment and the challenges of implementing widespread physical distancing and case isolation, poses a grave threat to the continent.To illustrate the potential burden of SARS-CoV-2 epidemics within the most vulnerable countries in Africa, we simulated a SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in DR Congo in the absence of interventions. Using an age-structured epidemiological model (appendix p 1), and assuming a basic reproductive number of 2·72 (95% CI 2·56–2·87),2MIDAS NetworkMIDAS 2019 novel coronavirus repository.https://github.com/midas-network/COVID-19Date accessed: April 9, 2020Google Scholar we estimate that there would be 76 213 155 infections (95% CI 74 156 965–77 800 029) and 319 441 deaths (313 079–324 175) in the absence of physical distancing (figure). Although individuals younger than 20 years account for 42 752 770 (95% CI 41 551 696–43 683 014; 56·1%) of these simulated SARS-CoV-2 infections, individuals aged 50 years and older constitute 280 623 (275 356–284 509; 87·8%) of the deaths in our model prediction. Given the high prevalence of comorbidities in DR Congo, as there is in Africa more broadly, the death toll could even be much higher.3

10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30374-1

COVID-19 on the African continent

Bei der epidemiologischen Abklärung geht es darum, darzustellen, wie sich ein Krankheitsausbruch innerhalb der Bevölkerung verbreitet: Dafür versucht man, Quellen der Infektion bzw. Übertragungsketten der Fälle durch persönliche Befragungen von erkrankten bzw. positiv getesteten Personen (= Fällen) zu identifizieren. Wenn man weiß, wie sich die Krankheit in der Bevölkerung verbreitet, können Maßnahmen gesetzt werden, die am wahrscheinlichsten dazu beitragen, die Verbreitung einzudämmen oder zu verlangsamen.

Epidemiologische Abklärung am Beispiel COVID-19

RT @ce_pickles: @reformthinktank has called for JRS to allow part-time working– i.e. employer pays worked hours, the scheme non-worked hour…

As research and government responses to the COVID-19 outbreak escalate in the face of a global public health crisis, Vincent Larivière, Fei Shu and Cassidy R. Sugimoto reflect on efforts to make research on this subject more widely available. Arguing that a narrow focus on research published in high ranking journals predominantly in English has impeded research efforts, they suggest that the renewed emphasis on carrying out open research on the virus presents an opportunity to reassess how research and scholarly communication systems serve the public good.

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak highlights serious deficiencies in scholarly communication

As a greater portion of the world begins to live more of their life online, the world’s top 100 websites continue to see explosive growth in their traffic numbers. To claim even the 100th spot in this ranking, your website would need around 350 million visits in a single month. Using data from SimilarWeb, we’ve visually mapped out the top 100 biggest websites on the internet. Examining the ranking reveals a lot about how people around the world search for information, which services they use, and how they spend time online.

Ranking the Top 100 Websites in the World

Predict social and behavioral science results. Help improve scientific research methods. Earn rewards for your insights.

Reliable research replicates... You can bet on it.

The impacts of COVID-19 and how we deal with them hinge on how politicians, firms and the public respond. What lessons can we learn from behavioural science about how we act in a time of crisis characterised by great uncertainty? What lessons can behavioural science learn about how it can be best placed to provide guidance in an uncertain world?

Behavioural Science in the Context of Great Uncertainty

BC’s Restart Plan lays out a series of steps that we will take together to protect people and ensure that our province can come back from COVID-19 stronger than before.

BC's Restart Plan

10.31234/osf.io/7863g

The new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) threatens the lives of millions of people around the world, making it the largest health threat in recent times. Billions of people around the world are asked to adhere to strict shelter-in-place rules, finalised to slow down the spread of the virus. Appeals and messages are being used by leaders and policy-makers to promote pandemic response. Given the stakes at play, it is thus important for social scientists to explore which messages are most effective in promoting pandemic response. In fact, some papers in the last month have explored the effect of several messages on people’s intentions to engage in pandemic response behaviour. In this paper, we make two contributions. First, we explore the effect of messages on people’s actual engagement, and not on intentions. Specifically, our dependent variables are the level of understanding of official COVID-19 pandemic response governmental informative panels, measured through comprehension questions, and the time spent on reading these rules. Second, we test a novel set of appeals built through the theory of norms. One message targets the personal norm (what people think is the right thing to do), one targets the descriptive norm (what people think others are doing), and one targets the injunctive norm (what people think others approve or disapprove of). Our experiment is conducted online with a representative (with respect to gender, age, and location) sample of Italians. Norms are made salient using a flier. We find that norm-based fliers had no effect on comprehension and on time spent on the panels. These results suggest that norm-based interventions through fliers have very little impact on people’s reading and understanding of COVID-19 pandemic response governmental rules.

The effect of norm-based messages on reading and understanding COVID-19 pandemic response governmental rules