Physical health mindsets and information avoidance.

Health mindsets refer to beliefs about the malleability (growth mindset) versus stability (fixed mindset) of physical health and have gained traction as a predictor of health beliefs and behaviors. Across two studies, we tested whether health mindsets were associated with avoiding personalized health risk information. In Study 2, we also tested whether conceptually-related constructs of internal and chance health locus of control, health self-efficacy, fatalism, and genetic determinism were associated with information avoidance.

What drives preventative health behaviors one year into a pandemic? A replication and extension.

: There is continued interest in understanding what leads people to engage in CDC-recommended COVID-19 prevention behaviors. We tested whether fear and COVID-19 worry would replicate as the primary drivers of six CDC recommended prevention behaviors. : We recruited 741 adult participants during the second major peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States (early 2021).

Attending to what's important: what heat maps may reveal about attention, inhibitory control, and fraction arithmetic performance.

Math proficiency is an important predictor of educational attainment and life success. However, developing mathematical competency is challenging, and some content (e.g.

Information Avoidance: Past Perspectives and Future Directions.

In the present age of unprecedented access to information, it is important to understand how and why people avoid information. Multiple definitions of "information avoidance" exist, and key aspects of these definitions deserve attention, such as distinguishing information avoidance from (lack of) information seeking, considering the intentionality and temporal nature of information avoidance, and considering the personal relevance of the information. In this review, we provide a cross-disciplinary historical account of theories and empirical research on information avoidance and seeking, drawing from research in multiple fields.

Motivations to learn genomic information are not exceptional: Lessons from behavioral science.

Whether to undergo genome sequencing in a clinical or research context is generally a voluntary choice. Individuals are often motivated to learn genomic information even when clinical utility-the possibility that the test could inform medical recommendations or health outcomes-is low or absent. Motivations to seek one's genomic information can be cognitive, affective, social, or mixed (e.

Intimate Partner Violence and Mental Health Among Transgender and Gender Diverse Young Adults.

Purpose: Research indicates that multiple forms of intimate partner violence (IPV) may be prevalent among transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people, including general forms of IPV (psychological, physical, sexual), as well as identity-specific forms (transgender-related IPV (T-IPV), identity abuse (IA)). Studies also suggest that IPV is associated with negative mental health outcomes in TGD populations, including depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, little is known about IPV and its association with mental health among TGD young adults.

Injunctive social norms and perceived message tailoring are associated with health information seeking.

Social norms messages may promote information seeking, especially when the norms refer to a group with which a person identifies. We hypothesized that tailored social norms messages would increase COVID-19 testing willingness and intentions. College students (n = 203, 75% female, 87% White) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions in a 2 (Descriptive norms: Relevant vs.

Testing Explanations for Skepticism of Personalized Risk Information.

Background: The promise of precision medicine could be stymied if people do not accept the legitimacy of personalized risk information. We tested 4 explanations for skepticism of personalized diabetes risk information.

Method: We recruited participants ( = 356; = 48.

Uncertainty in healthcare and health decision making: Five methodological and conceptual research recommendations from an interdisciplinary team.

Uncertainty is prevalent in various health contexts. It is imperative to understand how health-related uncertainty can impact individuals' healthcare experiences and health decision making. The purpose of the present paper is to provide five overarching recommendations from an interdisciplinary team of experts to address gaps in the literature on health-related uncertainty.

Experimental tests of hypothetical lottery incentives on unvaccinated adults' COVID-19 vaccination intentions.

Objective: In May 2021, U.S. states began implementing "vaccination lotteries" encouraging COVID-19 vaccination.

Number lines can be more effective at facilitating adults' performance on health-related ratio problems than risk ladders and icon arrays.

Visual displays, such as icon arrays and risk ladders, are often used to communicate numerical health information. Number lines improve reasoning with rational numbers but are seldom used in health contexts. College students solved ratio problems related to COVID-19 (e.

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

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.

Self-care behaviors and affect during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: Self-care behaviors aimed at maintaining physical and mental health are often recommended during stressful contexts. We tested emotional predictors of self-care behaviors (healthy eating, exercise, engaging in a hobby, relaxation/meditation, time spent with a supportive person, talking online with friends/family) during the COVID-19 pandemic and their emotional consequences. We hypothesized a reciprocal within-person process whereby positive affect increases self-care behaviors (Hypothesis 1) and self-care behaviors increase positive affect while decreasing negative affect (Hypothesis 2).

Field experiment of signs promoting hand hygiene during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. public was encouraged to practice good hand hygiene, such as hand washing or the use of hand sanitizer.

Leveraging Math Cognition to Combat Health Innumeracy.

Rational numbers (i.e., fractions, percentages, decimals, and whole-number frequencies) are notoriously difficult mathematical constructs.

Emotional complexity under high stress: Do protective associations for risk behaviors persist even during a pandemic?

Risk behaviors like substance use and binge eating are often used to cope with negative emotions. Engagement in these behaviors has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Past research suggests that complex emotion conceptualizations captured as emotion differentiation (ability to discriminate between emotional states) and polarity (ability to integrate positive and negative features of emotional experience) may be protective.

Confidence in COVID problem solving: What factors predict adults' item-level metacognitive judgments on health-related math problems before and after an educational intervention?

Unlabelled: The advent of COVID-19 highlighted widespread misconceptions regarding people's accuracy in interpreting quantitative health information. How do people judge whether they accurately answered health-related math problems? Which individual differences predict these item-by-item metacognitive monitoring judgments? How does a brief intervention targeting math skills-which increased problem-solving accuracy-affect people's monitoring judgments? We investigated these pre-registered questions in a secondary analysis of data from a large Qualtrics panel of adults ( = 1,297). Pretest performance accuracy, math self-efficacy, gender, and math anxiety were associated with pretest item-level monitoring judgments.

Math matters: A novel, brief educational intervention decreases whole number bias when reasoning about COVID-19.

At the onset of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) global pandemic, our interdisciplinary team hypothesized that a mathematical misconception-whole number bias (WNB)-contributed to beliefs that COVID-19 was less fatal than the flu. We created a brief online educational intervention for adults, leveraging evidence-based cognitive science research, to promote accurate understanding of rational numbers related to COVID-19. Participants from a Qualtrics panel (N = 1,297; 75% White) were randomly assigned to an intervention or control condition, solved health-related math problems, and subsequently completed 10 days of daily diaries in which health cognitions and affect were assessed.

Psychological Impact of Ambiguous Health Messages about COVID-19.

Perceiving ambiguity in health information-that is, uncertainty elicited from believing information lacks credibility, reliability, or adequacy-is typically associated with pessimistic appraisals (e.g., high perceived disease risk) and behavioral avoidance.

A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about a situation.

Effects of Construal Level on Responses to Ambiguous Health Information about Alcohol Consumption.

Information about the health effects of alcohol consumption can be ambiguous (i.e., lacking in reliability, credibility, or adequacy) and thus may promote maladaptive health behavior.

Headland bypassing timescales: Processes and driving forces.

In this paper, a natural headland bypassing is investigated in terms of its short (months to years) and long-term (years to decades) variability and its relationship with wave conditions, climate drivers and anthropogenic interventions. The research is focused on Fingal Head (New South Wales, Australia) where nine detailed topo-bathymetric surveys were undertaken between June 2018 and January 2020. To extend the analysis in time, over 30 years of satellite and aerial images were used to describe the headland bypassing variability based on the shoreline and sandbar position changes.

What Drives Preventive Health Behavior During a Global Pandemic? Emotion and Worry.

Background & Purpose: Primary prevention of COVID-19 has focused on encouraging compliance with specific behaviors that restrict contagion. This investigation sought to characterize engagement in these behaviors in U.S.

Information Avoidance, Self-affirmation, and Intentions to Receive Genomic Sequencing Results Among Members of an African Descent Cohort.

Background: Information avoidance tendencies have been found to be associated with lower intentions to pursue medically actionable genomic sequencing results, but less so among individuals who engage more in spontaneous self-affirmation. Yet these results were obtained with a largely non-Hispanic White, high-SES cohort.

Purpose: To assess these variables, their magnitude, and their associations in an African-descent cohort as part of the same ClinSeq® exome sequencing program.