Research Article

In COVID-19 Health Messaging, Loss Framing Increases Anxiety with Little-to-No Concomitant Benefits: Experimental Evidence from 84 Countries

Charles A. Dorison, Jennifer S. Lerner, Blake H. Heller, Alexander J. Rothman, Ichiro I. Kawachi, Ke Wang, Vaughan W. Rees, Brian P. Gill, Nancy Gibbs, Charles R. Ebersole, Zahir Vally, Zuzanna Tajchman, Andras N. Zsido, Mija Zrimsek, Zhang Chen, Ignazio Ziano, Zoi Gialitaki, Chris D. Ceary, Yijun Lin, Yoshihiko Kunisato, Yuki Yamada, Qinyu Xiao, Xiaoming Jiang, Xinkai Du, Elvin Yao, John Paul Wilson, Wilson Cyrus-Lai, William Jimenez-Leal, Wilbert Law, W. Matthew Collins, Karley L. Richard, Marek Vranka, Vladislav Ankushev, Vidar Schei, Valerija Križanić, Veselina Hristova Kadreva, Vera Cubela Adoric, Ulrich S. Tran, Siu Kit Yeung, Widad Hassan, Ralph Houston, Tiago J. S. Lima, Thomas Ostermann, Thomas Frizzo, Therese E. Sverdrup, Thea House, Tripat Gill, Maksim Fedotov, Tamar Paltrow, Teodor Jernsäther, Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Thomas J. Hostler, Tatsunori Ishii, Barnabas Szaszi, Sylwia Adamus, Lilian Suter, Sumaiya Habib, Anna Studzinska, Dragana Stojanovska, Steve M. J. Janssen, Stefan Stieger, Stefan E. Schulenberg, Srinivasan Tatachari, Soufian Azouaghe, Piotr Sorokowski, Agnieszka Sorokowska, Xin Song, Savannah C. Lewis, Sladjana Sinkolova, Dmitry Grigoryev, Shira Meir Drexler, Shimrit Daches, Shawn N. Geniole, Selena Vračar, Sébastien Massoni, Saša Zorjan, Eylül Sarıoğuz, Sara Morales Izquierdo, Sara G. Alves, Sara Pöntinen, Sara Álvarez Solas, Santiago Ordoñez-Riaño, Sanja Batić Očovaj, Sandersan Onie, Samuel Lins, Sami Çoksan, Asli Sacakli, Susana Ruiz-Fernández, Sandra J. Geiger, Saeideh FatahModares, Radoslaw B. Walczak, Ruben Betlehem, Roosevelt Vilar, Rodrigo Cárcamo, Robert M. Ross, Randy McCarthy, Tonia Ballantyne, Erin C. Westgate, Reza Afhami, Dongning Ren, Renan P. Monteiro, Ulf-Dietrich Reips, Niv Reggev, Robert J. Calin-Jageman, Razieh Pourafshari, Raquel Oliveira, Mina Nedelcheva-Datsova, Rima-Maria Rahal, Rafael R. Ribeiro, Theda Radtke, Rachel Searston, Redeate Habte, Przemysław Zdybek, Sau-Chin Chen, Princess Lovella G. Maturan, Jennifer T. Perillo, Peder Mortvedt Isager, Pavol Kačmár, Paulo Manuel Macapagal, Paulina Szwed, Paul H. P. Hanel, Paul A. G. Forbes, Patrícia Arriaga, Bastien Paris, Konstantinos Papachristopoulos, Pablo Sebastián Correa, Ondřej Kácha, Márcia Bernardo, Olatz Campos, Olalla Niño Bravo, Oscar J. Galindo-Caballero, Chisom Esther Ogbonnaya, Olga Bialobrzeska, Natalia Kiselnikova, Nicolle Simonovic, Noga Cohen, Nora L. Nock, Niklas Johannes, Nihan Albayrak-Aydemir, Nicolas Say, Nathan Torunsky, Natalia Van Doren, Naoyuki Sunami, Nikolay R. Rachev, Nadyanna M. Majeed, Nadya-Daniela Schmidt, Khaoula Nadif, Nadia S. Corral-Frías, Nihal Ouherrou, Myrto Pantazi, Marc Y. Lucas, Martin R. Vasilev, María Victoria Ortiz, Muhammad Mussaffa Butt, Muhib Kabir, Rafał Muda, Maria del Carmen MC Tejada Rivera, Miroslav Sirota, Martin Seehuus, Michal Parzuchowski, Mónica Toro, Monika Hricova, Mónica Alarcón Maldonado, Magdalena Marszalek, Maria Karekla, Giovanna Mioni, Minke Jasmijn Bosma, Minja Westerlund, Milica Vdovic, Michal Bialek, Miguel A. Silan, Michele Anne, Michal Misiak, Maurice Grinberg, Mariagrazia Capizzi, Mauricio F. Espinoza Barría, Merve A. Kurfali, Michael C. Mensink, Mikayel Harutyunyan, Meetu Khosla, Max Korbmacher, Matúš Adamkovič, Matheus Fernando Felix Ribeiro, Maria Terskova, Matej Hruška, Marcel Martončik, Martin Voracek, Martin Čadek, Martha Frías-Armenta, Marta Kowal, Marta Topor, Marta Roczniewska, Marlies Oosterlinck, Markéta Braun Kohlová, Mariola Paruzel-Czachura, Marina Romanova, Marietta Papadatou-Pastou, Maria Louise Lund, Maria Antoniadi, Marc V. Jones, Manuel S. Ortiz, Mathi Manavalan, Abdumalik Muminov, Małgorzata Kossowska, Maja Friedemann, Magdalena Wielgus, Marco A. C. Varella, Melissa F. Colloff, Maria Bradford, Leigh Ann Vaughn, Luis Eudave, Luc Vieira, Lina Maria Sanabria Pineda, Laura Calderón Pérez, Ljiljana B. Lazarevic, Lisa M. Jaremka, Elizaveta Kushnir, Lisa Anton-Boicuk, Gabriel Lins de Holanda Coelho, Lina Ahlgren, Carmel A. Levitan, Leticia Micheli, Leonhard Volz, Marija Stojanovska, Leanne Boucher, Lara Samojlenko, Lady Grey Javela Delgado, Lada Kaliska, Lara Warmelink, Luis Miguel Rojas-Berscia, Karen Yu, Jakub Wachowicz, Kermeka Desai, Krystian Barzykowski, Luca Kozma, Kortnee Evans, Komila Kirgizova, Bamikole Emmanuel Agesin, Monica A Koehn, Kelly Wolfe, Tatiana Korobova, Kristoffer Klevjer, Kevin van Schie, Kevin Vezirian, Kaja Damnjanović, Katrine Krabbe Thommesen, Kathleen Schmidt, Katarzyna Filip, Karolina Grzech, Karlijn Hoyer, Karis Moon, Kafeel Rana, Kristina Janjić, Jordan W. Suchow, Julita Kielińska, Julio E Cruz Vásquez, Julia Beitner, Juan Camilo Vargas-Nieto, Jose Carlos T. Roxas, Jennifer Taber, Joan Urriago-Rayo, Jeffrey M. Pavlacic, Jozef Bavolar, José A. Soto, Jonas K. Olofsson, Johannes K. Vilsmeier, Johanna Messerschmidt, Johanna Czamanski-Cohen, Jordane Boudesseul, Jeong Min Lee, Julia Kamburidis, Janis Zickfeld, Jacob F. Miranda, Jeroen P. H. Verharen, Evgeniya Hristova, Julie E. Beshears, Jasna Milošević Đorđević, Jasmijn Bosch, Jaroslava Varella Valentova, Jan Antfolk, Jana B. Berkessel, Jana Schrötter, Jan Urban, Jan Philipp Röer, James O Norton, Jaime R. Silva, Jade S. Pickering, Jáchym Vintr, Jim Uttley, Jonas R. Kunst, Izuchukwu L. G. Ndukaihe, Aishwarya Iyer, Iris Vilares, Aleksandr Ivanov, Ivan Ropovik, Isabela Sula, Irena Sarieva, Irem Metin-Orta, Irina Prusova, Isabel Pinto, Andreea Ioana Bozdoc, Inês A. T. Almeida, Ilse L. Pit, Ilker Dalgar, Ilya Zakharov, Azuka Ikechukwu Arinze, Keiko Ihaya, Ian D. Stephen, Biljana Gjoneska, Hilmar Brohmer, Heather Flowe, Hendrik Godbersen, Halil Emre Kocalar, Mattie V. Hedgebeth, Hu Chuan-Peng, MohammadHasan Sharifian, Harry Manley, Handan Akkas, Nandor Hajdu, Habiba Azab, Gwenael Kaminski, Gustav Nilsonne, Gulnaz Anjum, Giovanni A. Travaglino, Gilad Feldman, Gerit Pfuhl, Gabriela Czarnek, Gabriela Mariana Marcu, Gabriela Hofer, Gabriel Banik, Gabriel Agboola Adetula, Gijsbert Bijlstra, Frederick Verbruggen, Franki Y. H. Kung, Francesco Foroni, Gage Singer, Fany Muchembled, Flavio Azevedo, Farnaz Mosannenzadeh, Evelina Marinov, Eva Štrukelj, Zahra Etebari, Ernest Baskin, Elkin Oswaldo Luis Garcia, Erica Musser, I.M.M. van Steenkiste, El Rim Ahn, Ekaterina Pronizius, Emily A Jackson, Efisio Manunta, Elena Agadullina, Dušana Šakan, Pinar Dursun, Olivier Dujols, Dmitrii Dubrov, Megan Willis, Murat Tümer, Jennifer L. Beaudry, Dora Popović, Daniel Dunleavy, Ikhlas Djamai, Dino Krupić, Diego Vega, Hongfei Du, Débora Mola, William E. Davis, Dawn Liu Holford, David M. G. Lewis, David C. Vaidis, Daphna Hausman Ozery, Danilo Zambrano Ricaurte, Daniel Storage, Daniela Sousa, Daniela Serrato Alvarez, Anna Dalla Rosa, Dajana Krupić, Dafne Marko, David Moreau, Crystal Reeck, Rita C. Correia, Cassie M. Whitt, Claus Lamm, Claudio Singh Solorzano, Claudia C. von Bastian, Clare AM Sutherland, Clara Overkott, Christopher L. Aberson, Chunhui Wang, Christiana Karashiali, Chris Noone, Faith Chiu, Chiara Picciocchi, Cemre Karaarslan, Nicola Cellini, Celia Esteban-Serna, Cecilia Reyna, Carlota Batres, Ranran Li, Caterina Grano, Joelle Carpentier, Christian K. Tamnes, Cynthia H.Y. Fu, Byurakn Ishkhanyan, Lisa Bylinina, Bastian Jaeger, Carsten Bundt, Tara Bulut Allred, Ahmed Bokkour, Natalia Bogatyreva, William J. Chopik, Benedict Antazo, Behzad Behzadnia, Maja Becker, Beatrice Cocco, Wei-Lun Chou, Barbora Hubena, Barbara Žuro, Balazs Aczel, Ekaterina Baklanova, Hui Bai, Busra Bahar Balci, Peter Babinčák, Barnaby James Wyld Dixson, Aviv Mokady, Heather Barry Kappes, Mohammad Atari, Anna Szala, Anna Szabelska, John Jamir Benzon Aruta, Artur Domurat, Nwadiogo Chisom Arinze, Arianna Modena, Arca Adiguzel, Arash Monajem, Kanza AIT EL ARABI, Asil Ali Özdoğru, Adriana Julieth Olaya Torres, Andriana Theodoropoulou, Anita Penić Jurković, Angelos P. Kassianos, Andrej Findor, Andree Hartanto, Anais Thibault Landry, Ana Ferreira, Anabela Caetano Santos, Anabel De la Rosa-Gomez, Amélie Gourdon-Kanhukamwe, Anna Louise Todsen, Alper Karababa, Allison Janak, Alexandre Bran, Alexa M. Tullett, Anna O. Kuzminska, Anthony J Krafnick, Anum Urooj, Ahmed Khaoudi, Afroja Ahmed, Agata Groyecka-Bernard, Adrian Dahl Askelund, Adeyemi Adetula, Anabel Belaus, Abdelilah Ca Charyate, Aaron L. Wichman, Alina Stoyanova, Anna Greenburgh, Andrew G. Thomas, Alexios Arvanitis, Patrick S. Forscher, Peter R Mallik, Maximilian A. Primbs, Jeremy K. Miller, Hannah Moshontz, Heather L. Urry, Hans IJzerman, Dana M. Basnight-Brown, Christopher R. Chartier, Erin M. Buchanan, and Nicholas A. Coles

The COVID-19 pandemic (and its aftermath) highlights a critical need to communicate health information effectively to the global public. Given that subtle differences in information framing can have meaningful effects on behavior, behavioral science research highlights a pressing question: Is it more effective to frame COVID-19 health messages in terms of potential losses (e.g., “If you do not practice these steps, you can endanger yourself and others”) or potential gains (e.g., “If you practice these steps, you can protect yourself and others”)? Collecting data in 48 languages from 15,929 participants in 84 countries, we experimentally tested the effects of message framing on COVID-19-related judgments, intentions, and feelings. Loss- (vs. gain-) framed messages increased self-reported anxiety among participants cross-nationally with little-to-no impact on policy attitudes, behavioral intentions, or information seeking relevant to pandemic risks. These results were consistent across 84 countries, three variations of the message framing wording, and 560 data processing and analytic choices. Thus, results provide an empirical answer to a global communication question and highlight the emotional toll of loss-framed messages. Critically, this work demonstrates the importance of considering unintended affective consequences when evaluating nudge-style interventions.

Citation: Dorison, C. A., Lerner, J. S., Heller, B. H., Rothman, A. J., Kawachi, I. I., Wang, K., Rees, V. W., Gill, B. P., Gibbs, N., Ebersole, C. R., Vally, Z., Tajchman, Z., Zsido, A. N., Zrimsek, M., Chen, Z., Ziano, I., Gialitaki, Z., Ceary, C. D., Lin, Y., . . . Coles, N. A. (2022). In COVID-19 health messaging, loss framing increases anxiety with little-to-no concomitant benefits: Experimental evidence from 84 countries. Affective Science, 3, 577-602. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-022-00128-3

Conference Paper

Embodiment of Abstract Concepts in Right- and Left-Handers: A Replication Study

Asil Ali Özdoğru and Şahsenem Sarı

Theory of embodied cognition implies that human thoughts include mental models of bodily experiences. According to the body specificity hypothesis derived from this theory, individuals' different systematic interactions with their physical environment leads to different mental representations. In his test of this hypothesis with five experiments in 2009, Casasanto showed that right- and left-handed individuals made different concrete object preferences and abstract concept evaluations. This study is a direct replication of the first experiment of the original study in a Turkish sample. The study sample consisted of 164 adults, mostly working in the same organization, from İstanbul, Turkey. Nineteen of the participants were left-handed and 145 were right-handed. A paper-pencil questionnaire including demographic questions and the experimental task were administered to participants in their workplace. In the experimental task, participants were presented with a written depiction of a fictional character’s good or bad evaluations of two animals. On the next page, participants were asked to draw the related animals from the character’s point of view in two empty boxes placed next to each other. Our findings showed that 63% (103 out of 164) of all participants placed the good animal on their dominant side. Additionally, 89% (17 out of 19) of left-handers placed the good animal in the left box and 59% (86 out of 145) of right-handers did the same for the right box. These findings were statistically significant as tested by sign tests. These findings indicate that adults associate positive thoughts with their dominant side and negative thoughts with their nondominant side. Successfully replicating Casasanto's findings in a Turkish sample, this study shows that individuals with different body habits develop corresponding mental representations in consistency with predictions of the body specificity hypothesis.

Citation: Özdoğru, A. A., & Sarı, Ş. (2022, July 5-8). Embodiment of abstract concepts in right- and left-handers: A replication study [Conference presentation]. 17th European Congress of Psychology, Ljubljana, Slovenia. https://www.ecp2022.eu

Media: Üsküdar Üniversitesi Psikoloji Bölümü Çalışmalarıyla Avrupa Psikoloji Kongresinde! (2022, Temmuz 7). Üsküdar Haber Ajansı. https://uskudar.edu.tr/tr/icerik/8143/uskudar-universitesi-psikoloji-bolumu-calismalariyla-avrupa-psikoloji-kongresinde

Conference Paper

An Extended Replication of Death Thought Suppression in a Turkish Sample

Asil Ali Özdoğru and Şevval Osmanoğlu

According to terror management theory, individuals experience cognitive discomfort when they think about the inevitability of death. When mortality becomes salient, individuals suppress thoughts of death through cultural beliefs and values that give them meaning in life and a sense of personal value or self-esteem. In some studies with death primes, individuals were found to have higher accessibility of death thoughts after a delay in the task due to cessation of suppression. In their study in 2012, Trafimow and Hughes found that death thought accessibility was higher in no delay condition than the delay condition. As part of an international registered replication, this study aimed to replicate that finding in a Turkish sample with additional variables. A group of 106 Turkish university students (90% female, mean age 24.3) responded to an online questionnaire. Experimental group was asked to think and write about their own death (n = 50), while the control group was asked about dental pain (n = 56). In the delay condition, half of all participants (n = 49) read an unrelated brief news article. After the stimuli, participants were given either a word generation or completion tasks including death related words. Additionally, participants completed the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) and the Sense of Humor Scale (SHQ-6-R). Results. We found that the experimental group generated significantly more death-related words than the control group. In both experimental and control groups, there was no significant difference between the two delay conditions or the two word task groups in the amount of death-related words. Number of death-related words were not significantly associated with the RSES or SHQ-6-R scores. Our findings did not replicate the findings of the original study. Theoretical and methodological implications were discussed.

Citation: Özdoğru, A. A., & Osmanoğlu, Ş. (2022, July 5-8). An extended replication of death thought suppression in a Turkish sample [Conference presentation]. 17th European Congress of Psychology, Ljubljana, Slovenia. https://www.ecp2022.eu

Media: Üsküdar Üniversitesi Psikoloji Bölümü Çalışmalarıyla Avrupa Psikoloji Kongresinde! (2022, Temmuz 7). Üsküdar Haber Ajansı. https://uskudar.edu.tr/tr/icerik/8143/uskudar-universitesi-psikoloji-bolumu-calismalariyla-avrupa-psikoloji-kongresinde

Conference Paper

Trust in Algorithms and Statistical Literacy in Low- and High-Stake Contexts

Asil Ali Özdoğru and Merve Büşra Çetin

Many organizations and governments around the world are collecting large amounts of data and using various algorithms to process data and make decisions. These algorithms have important consequences as they are trusted to assist decision making in many contexts. Individuals’ trust in algorithms can be shaped by many personal and contextual factors. Since algorithms have a statistical nature and different levels of explainability, statistical literacy, which is individuals’ ability to understand statistical and probabilistic information, may play a role in their trust in algorithms. Individuals’ trust can also show variation depending on the context of decisions. Low-stake situations such as a restaurant reservation and high-stakes situations such as employment decisions can have different effects on trust. This study tested the effects of statistical literacy, degree of explainability, and decision context on Turkish university students’ level of trust in algorithms. A total of 110 students (95 females, 14 males, 1 unknown) from a foundation university in İstanbul participated in the study. Participants responded to an online survey including basic demographic questions, six items on trust in algorithms, 14 items on statistical literacy, and two items about 12 scenarios featuring algorithms with different levels of explainability and context. Half of the participants (n = 52) received low-stake scenarios with explainability and high-stake scenarios without explainability, while others (n = 58) received low-stake scenarios without explainability and high-stake scenarios with explainability. There was no statistically significant correlation between trust in algorithms and statistical literacy scores. Trust in algorithm ratings in the scenarios did not significantly differ between explainability conditions. On the other hand, trust ratings in high-stake scenarios were significantly lower than the low-stake ones. Results show that individuals’ tendency to trust in algorithms is not related to their levels of statistical literacy but related to context of algorithms in use.

Citation: Özdoğru, A. A., & Çetin, M. B. (2022, July 5-8). Trust in algorithms and statistical literacy in low- and high-stake contexts [Conference presentation]. 17th European Congress of Psychology, Ljubljana, Slovenia. https://www.ecp2022.eu

Media: Üsküdar Üniversitesi Psikoloji Bölümü Çalışmalarıyla Avrupa Psikoloji Kongresinde! (2022, Temmuz 7). Üsküdar Haber Ajansı. https://uskudar.edu.tr/tr/icerik/8143/uskudar-universitesi-psikoloji-bolumu-calismalariyla-avrupa-psikoloji-kongresinde

Research Article

Lexical Access Speed and the Development of Phonological Recoding during Immediate Serial Recall

Angela M. AuBuchon, Emily M. Elliott, Candice C. Morey, Christopher Jarrold, Nelson Cowan, Eryn J. Adams, Meg Attwood, Büsra Bayram, Taran Y. Blakstvedt, Gerhard Büttner, Thomas Castelain, Shari Cave, Davide Crepaldi, Eivor Fredriksen, Bret A. Glass, Dominic Guitard, Stefanie Hoehl, Alexis Hosch, Stéphanie Jeanneret, Tanya N. Joseph, Christopher Koch, Jaroslaw R. Lelonkiewicz, Grace Meissner, Whitney Mendenhall, David Moreau, Thomas Ostermann, Asil Ali Özdogru, Francesca Padovani, Sebastian Poloczek, Jan Philipp Röer, Christina Schonberg, Christian K. Tamnes, Martin J. Tomasik, Beatrice Valentini, Evie Vergauwe, Haley Vlach, and Martin Voracek

A recent Registered Replication Report (RRR) of the development of verbal rehearsal during serial recall revealed that children verbalized at younger ages than previously thought, but did not identify sources of individual differences. Here, we use mediation analysis to reanalyze data from the 934 children ranging from 5 to 10 years old from the RRR for that purpose. From ages 5 to 7, the time taken for a child to label pictures (i.e. isolated naming speed) predicted the child’s spontaneous use of labels during a visually presented serial reconstruction task, despite no need for spoken responses. For 6- and 7-year-olds, isolated naming speed also predicted recall. The degree to which verbalization mediated the relation between isolated naming speed and recall changed across development. All relations dissipated by age 10. The same general pattern was observed in an exploratory analysis of delayed recall for which greater demands are placed on rehearsal for item maintenance. Overall, our findings suggest that spontaneous phonological recoding during a standard short-term memory task emerges around age 5, increases in efficiency during the early elementary school years, and is sufficiently automatic by age 10 to support immediate serial recall in most children. Moreover, the findings highlight the need to distinguish between phonological recoding and rehearsal in developmental studies of short-term memory.

Citation: AuBuchon, A. M., Elliott, E. M., Morey, C. C., Jarrold, C., Cowan, N., Adams, E. J., Attwood, M., Bayram, B., Blakstvedt, T. Y., Büttner, G., Castelain, T., Cave, S., Crepaldi, D., Fredriksen, E., Glass, B. A., Guitard, D., Hoehl, S., Hosch, A., Jeanneret, S., . . . Voracek, M. (2022). Lexical access speed and the development of phonological recoding during immediate serial recall. Journal of Cognition and Development, 23(5), 624-643. https://doi.org/10.1080/15248372.2022.2083140

Book Chapter

Revisiting Effective Instructional Strategies for Twenty-First-Century Learners

Asil Ali Özdoğru

Rapid changes in the society and technology of the twenty-first century world have brought unique challenges for humanity. This chapter summarizes some of the strategies and support systems for effective learning and teaching in the twenty-first century in addressing some of these challenges. Learning is a dynamic process that is supported by the mechanisms of memory and reasoning as well as an individual’s mindset, habits, goals, and motivation. Theories and research imply that learning is not only a cognitive process but also a social-emotional process that takes place environmentally and culturally across one’s lifespan. Strategies to foster effective learning and teaching should pursue developing a process that is more active, authentic, collaborative, creative, interactive, personalized, relational, and self-regulative. Effective instruction is centered on the learner and knowledge, promotes conceptual understanding and metacognition, and utilizes assessment and technology in alignment with the instructional objectives. Productive instructional strategies used in a caring and supportive environment embedded in service and support systems foster learners’ cognitive, social, and emotional development.

Keywords: Twenty-first-century skills, Instructional strategies, Educational implications

Citation: Özdoğru, A. A. (2022). Revisiting effective instructional strategies for twenty-first-century learners. In Y. Alpaydın & C. Demirli (Eds.), Educational theory in the 21st century: Science, technology, society and education (pp. 175-195). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9640-4_8

Research Article

A Global Experiment on Motivating Social Distancing During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Psychological Science Accelerator Self-Determination Theory Collaboration

Finding communication strategies that effectively motivate social distancing continues to be a global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-country, preregistered experiment (n = 25,718 from 89 countries) tested hypotheses concerning generalizable positive and negative outcomes of social distancing messages that promoted personal agency and reflective choices (i.e., an autonomy-supportive message) or were restrictive and shaming (i.e., a controlling message) compared with no message at all. Results partially supported experimental hypotheses in that the controlling message increased controlled motivation (a poorly internalized form of motivation relying on shame, guilt, and fear of social consequences) relative to no message. On the other hand, the autonomy-supportive message lowered feelings of defiance compared with the controlling message, but the controlling message did not differ from receiving no message at all. Unexpectedly, messages did not influence autonomous motivation (a highly internalized form of motivation relying on one’s core values) or behavioral intentions. Results supported hypothesized associations between people’s existing autonomous and controlled motivations and self-reported behavioral intentions to engage in social distancing. Controlled motivation was associated with more defiance and less long-term behavioral intention to engage in social distancing, whereas autonomous motivation was associated with less defiance and more short- and long-term intentions to social distance. Overall, this work highlights the potential harm of using shaming and pressuring language in public health communication, with implications for the current and future global health challenges.

Citation: Psychological Science Accelerator Self-Determination Theory Collaboration. (2022). A global experiment on motivating social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(22), e2111091119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2111091119

Media: Is controlling communication effective during public health crises? (2022, May 27). Durham University. https://www.durham.ac.uk/news-events/latest-news/2022/05/is-controlling-communication-effective-during-public-health-crises/