Lep Žan, Ilić Sandra, Teovanović Predrag, Hacin Beyazoglu Kaja, Damnjanović Kaja
Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Laboratory for Experimental Psychology, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
Front Psychol. 2021 Jul 5;12:631791. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.631791. eCollection 2021.
COVID-19 pandemic is a long-lasting process associated with dynamic changes within society and in individual psychological responses. Effective communication of measures by credible sources throughout the epidemic is one of the crucial factors for the containment of the disease, and the official communication about pandemics is straightforwardly directed toward changes in behavior via engagement in (self-)protective measures. Calls for the adherence to these measures are aimed at the general population, but people's reactions to these calls vary depending on, for example, their individual differences in cognitive and emotional responses to the situation. The focus of our study was the general narrative about the epidemic as conveyed by both state officials and media outlets in times of decreased social contacts due to the quarantine, in which relying on these sources of information is even more pivotal. Our aim was to explore the stability of the proposed mediational model during the course of the epidemic in Serbia. In the model, we tested the relationship between perceived credibility of information (PCI) and two types of protective behavior-the actual self-protective behavior (ASPB) and the hypothetical protective behavior (HPB), as well as the potential mediating role of alertness in these relationships time-wise. A cross-sectional study ( = 10,782, female = 79.1%) was being administered daily during the first epidemic wave and in three more 2-week time frames during the second wave. Based on the variability of these measures during the first epidemic wave, three stages of psychological responses were mapped (acute, adaptation, and relaxation stage), which were observed, with some deviations, also in the second wave. The mediational model was relatively robust after the initial few weeks, but the strength of pairwise relationships was more changeable. With both types of protective behaviors, the predictive power of PCI was partially mediated through alertness. This suggests that, while individual differences in cognitive and affective responses are important, so is coherent, focused, and credible communication in all stages of the epidemic, which emphasizes the communality aspect of the social containment of the infection. Our findings can thus be valuable in informing the planning of effective future communication.
新冠疫情是一个长期过程，与社会内部以及个体心理反应的动态变化相关。在整个疫情期间，可靠来源对措施进行有效沟通是控制该疾病的关键因素之一，而关于疫情的官方沟通直接旨在通过参与（自我）保护措施来改变行为。呼吁遵守这些措施的对象是普通民众，但人们对这些呼吁的反应各不相同，例如，这取决于他们对该情况的认知和情绪反应的个体差异。我们研究的重点是在因隔离导致社交接触减少时，由政府官员和媒体传达的关于疫情的总体叙述，在这种情况下，依赖这些信息来源更为关键。我们的目的是探讨在塞尔维亚疫情期间所提出的中介模型的稳定性。在该模型中，我们测试了信息可信度感知（PCI）与两种保护行为——实际自我保护行为（ASPB）和假设保护行为（HPB）之间的关系，以及警觉性在这些关系中的潜在中介作用。在疫情第一波期间每天进行一项横断面研究（n = 10,782，女性 = 79.1%），并在第二波期间的另外三个为期两周的时间段内进行。根据第一波疫情期间这些指标的变化情况，绘制了心理反应的三个阶段（急性期、适应期和放松期），在第二波疫情中也观察到了这些阶段，不过存在一些偏差。在最初几周后，中介模型相对稳健，但两两关系的强度变化更大。对于两种保护行为，PCI的预测能力部分通过警觉性来介导。这表明，虽然认知和情感反应的个体差异很重要，但在疫情的各个阶段，连贯、集中且可信的沟通同样重要，这种沟通强调了感染社会控制的共同性方面。因此，我们的研究结果对于为未来有效沟通的规划提供信息可能具有重要价值。
