Publications by authors named "Silvana Mula"

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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The link between threat and anti-immigrant prejudice is well-established. Relatedly, recent research has also shown that situational threats (such as concern with COVID-19 threat) increase anti-immigrant prejudice through the mediating role of desire for cultural tightness. This study aims to further our understanding of the psychological processes underlying the relation between concern with COVID-19 threat and increased negative attitudes towards immigrants by considering the mediational role of an individual epistemic motivation (i.

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Background: Sexual objectification can assume various forms, from interpersonal to cultural and environmental ones. Previous research has highlighted how working in sexually objectifying environments (SOEs) can lead female workers to experience negative feelings (i.e.

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Tightness-Looseness (T-L) at the individual level has only begun to receive attention from researchers. Specifically in the organizational context, this is a so far unexplored construct. The study offers first insights into the mechanisms that can trigger individuals' desire for tightness and the consequences it can have on organizational behaviors.

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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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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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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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When ecological threats are more severe or prevalent, societies are more likely to tighten their social norms and punishments. Moreover, when people follow clear and tight rules, they are more prone to regulate their behavior (i.e.

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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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