Publications by authors named "Erica Molinario"

Article Synopsis
  • The study explores how different types of threats during a crisis, particularly economic and health-related threats from COVID-19, influence belief in conspiracy theories.
  • Research conducted in Italy and Argentina found that economic threats were positively associated with increased conspiracy beliefs, while health threats had mixed effects—negative in Italy and negligible in Argentina.
  • The results suggest that different aspects of a crisis impact people's endorsement of conspiracy beliefs in varying ways and highlight the need for more research into the relationship between specific threats and conspiracy thinking.
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Discourse about people seeking refuge from conflict varies considerably. To understand what components of this discourse reach refugees the most, we examined refugees' perceptions of how their host communities perceive them (i.e.

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One of the oldest scientific theories of human aggression is the frustration-aggression hypothesis, advanced in 1939. Although this theory has received considerable empirical support and is alive and well today, its underlying mechanisms have not been adequately explored. In this article, we examine major findings and concepts from extant psychological research on hostile aggression and offer an integrative conception: aggression is a primordial means for establishing one's sense of significance and mattering, thus addressing a fundamental social-psychological need.

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Some public officials have expressed concern that policies mandating collective public health behaviors (e.g., national/regional "lockdown") may result in behavioral fatigue that ultimately renders such policies ineffective.

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In this work, we discuss through lens of the 3N model of radicalization vulnerability to conspiracy beliefs and the factors, which contribute to acting upon such beliefs. After discussing the numerous empirically supported precursors to conspiracy beliefs, we integrate them within the 3N framework, positing that belief in conspiracy theories are particularly suited to satisfy the need for significance through the incitation to violence against an alleged enemy. Conspiracy theories highlight for believers their grievance and a culprit responsible for that grievance who needs to be defeated.

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Anxiety associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and home confinement has been associated with adverse health behaviors, such as unhealthy eating, smoking, and drinking. However, most studies have been limited by regional sampling, which precludes the examination of behavioral consequences associated with the pandemic at a global level. Further, few studies operationalized pandemic-related stressors to enable the investigation of the impact of different types of stressors on health outcomes.

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Before vaccines for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) became available, a set of infection-prevention behaviors constituted the primary means to mitigate the virus spread. Our study aimed to identify important predictors of this set of behaviors. Whereas social and health psychological theories suggest a limited set of predictors, machine-learning analyses can identify correlates from a larger pool of candidate predictors.

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The present paper examines longitudinally how subjective perceptions about COVID-19, one's community, and the government predict adherence to public health measures to reduce the spread of the virus. Using an international survey (N = 3040), we test how infection risk perception, trust in the governmental response and communications about COVID-19, conspiracy beliefs, social norms on distancing, tightness of culture, and community punishment predict various containment-related attitudes and behavior. Autoregressive analyses indicate that, at the personal level, personal hygiene behavior was predicted by personal infection risk perception.

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Even though the motivation to feel worthy, to be respected, and to matter to others has been identified for centuries by scholars, the antecedents, consequences, and conditions of its activation have not been systematically analyzed or integrated. The purpose of this article is to offer such an integration. We feature a motivational construct, the quest for significance, defined as the need to have social worth.

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Tightening social norms is thought to be adaptive for dealing with collective threat yet it may have negative consequences for increasing prejudice. The present research investigated the role of desire for cultural tightness, triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, in increasing negative attitudes towards immigrants. We used participant-level data from 41 countries ( = 55,015) collected as part of the PsyCorona project, a cross-national longitudinal study on responses to COVID-19.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Overall, 72.9% of respondents expressed a willingness to get vaccinated, with prosocial behavior positively correlating with vaccine intentions, while belief in conspiracy theories and religiosity negatively influenced them.
  • * The research highlights the need to address misinformation and engage religious organizations in campaigns, emphasizing the importance of promoting prosocial values to boost vaccination rates globally.
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The current research examined the role of values in guiding people's responses to COVID-19. Results from an international study involving 115 countries ( = 61,490) suggest that health and economic threats of COVID-19 evoke different values, with implications for controlling and coping with the pandemic. Specifically, health threats predicted prioritization of communal values related to caring for others and belonging, whereas economic threats predicted prioritization of agentic values focused on competition and achievement.

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Article Synopsis
  • The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a global health crisis, prompting many countries to implement strict measures that have significantly altered societal dynamics.
  • This situation has fostered a sentiment of societal discontent, which is defined as a collective worry about society's fragile state and can drive individuals to engage in altruistic behavior.
  • The study analyzed data from 42 countries and found that higher societal discontent increases individuals' willingness to help others affected by COVID-19, highlighting important implications for crisis management strategies.
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During the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. conservative politicians and the media downplayed the risk of both contracting COVID-19 and the effectiveness of recommended health behaviors.

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The conflict in Syria created a dire humanitarian situation, as nations around the world struggled with how best to deal with the more than 6.6 million Syrian refugees who fled their homes to escape aggression. Resistance to granting refugee status to individuals often originates in the belief that the influx of refugees endangers national security because of the presumably extremist religious and political beliefs that refugees hold.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study analyzes how social connections and feelings of solidarity influenced experiences of loneliness during the COVID-19 lockdown across 23 countries from March to May 2020.
  • - Findings reveal that while online interactions can help lessen loneliness, those who feel lonelier are less likely to engage in online contact, and solidarity has minimal impact on loneliness levels during lockdown.
  • - Additionally, increased online communication does not replace in-person interactions; instead, it appears to encourage more face-to-face contacts later on, highlighting the complexity of social interactions during lockdown.
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This paper examines whether compliance with COVID-19 mitigation measures is motivated by wanting to save lives or save the economy (or both), and which implications this carries to fight the pandemic. National representative samples were collected from 24 countries (N = 25,435). The main predictors were (1) perceived risk to contract coronavirus, (2) perceived risk to suffer economic losses due to coronavirus, and (3) their interaction effect.

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The term intrinsic motivation refers to an activity being seen as its own end. Accordingly, we conceptualize intrinsic motivation (IM) as (perceived) means-ends fusion and define an intrinsicality continuum reflecting the degree to which such fusion is experienced. Our means-ends fusion (MEF) theory assumes four major antecedents of activity-goal fusion: (a) repeated pairing of the activity and the goal, (b) uniqueness of the activity-goal connection, (c) perceived similarity between the activity and its goal, and (d) temporal immediacy of goal attainment following the activity.

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