Ye Shengquan, So Justin Juk Man, Ng Ting Kin, Ma Mac Zewei
Department of Social and Behavioural Science, Colleague of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Front Psychol. 2023 Feb 14;13:1074334. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1074334. eCollection 2022.
Past research has shown that psychological states tend to fluctuate across the days of a week, which is referred to as the day-of-week (DOW) effect. This study investigated the DOW effect on liberalism-conservatism among Chinese people by testing two competing hypotheses. According to the cognitive states hypothesis, it was predicted that liberalism would be high on Mondays but gradually decrease to Fridays due to the depletion of cognitive resources over the weekdays. In contrast, the affective states hypothesis predicted the opposite, considering the more positive affect brought by the approaching weekends. Both hypotheses predicted the level of liberalism would peak at weekends.
Data ( = 171,830) were collected via an online questionnaire, the Chinese Political Compass (CPC) survey, which includes 50 items to measure people' liberalism-conservatism in three domains (i.e., political, economic, and social).
The results showed the level of liberalism decreased gradually from Mondays until Wednesdays, rebounded from Wednesdays to Fridays, and peaked at weekends.
The V-shaped pattern suggested that the DOW fluctuation in liberalism-conservatism could derive from the synergy of both cognitive and affective processes, instead of either one alone. The findings have important implications for practice and policy-making, including the recent pilot scheme of 4-day workweek.
过去的研究表明，心理状态往往会在一周的不同日子里波动，这被称为周内效应。本研究通过检验两个相互竞争的假设，调查了中国人在自由主义-保守主义方面的周内效应。根据认知状态假设，预计自由主义在周一较高，但由于工作日认知资源的消耗，到周五会逐渐下降。相比之下，情感状态假设则预测相反的情况，考虑到接近周末会带来更积极的情绪。两个假设都预测自由主义水平会在周末达到峰值。
通过在线问卷《中国政治罗盘》（CPC）调查收集数据（n = 171,830），该调查包括50个项目，用于在三个领域（即政治、经济和社会）测量人们的自由主义-保守主义。
结果显示，自由主义水平从周一到周三逐渐下降，从周三到周五反弹，并在周末达到峰值。
这种V形模式表明，自由主义-保守主义的周内波动可能源于认知和情感过程的协同作用，而不是单独的某一个。这些发现对实践和政策制定具有重要意义，包括最近的四天工作制试点计划。
