Social capital in Mexico moderates the relationship of uncertainty and cooperation during the SARS-COV-2 pandemic

This study proposes that, given the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, its sanitary restrictions, and the associated economic effects, citizens perceive higher uncertainty and tend to reduce their willingness to cooperate with others. Community social capital refers to a set of norms of reciprocity, trust, and civic engagement networks that promote trust, reciprocal help, and cooperation for mutual benefits. It is also suggested that it can help alleviate negative effects of the pandemic in communities, by reducing uncertainty and its harmful effects on cooperation. These hypotheses were tested in a sample of 565 inhabitants of Mexico, who answered an online survey with measurements of social capital, uncertainty, and willingness to cooperate in the face of the pandemic. The relationships between variables were analyzed in two structural equation models, which show adequate goodness of fit, where higher levels of uncertainty generated by the pandemic were associated with a greater disposition to noncooperation with others, while social capital moderated this relation decreasing negative effects of uncertainty on noncooperation. The value of social capital is discussed as a resource worth preserving and promoting in communities to strengthen them, so that they are better able to face health or economic contingencies.

Differences in Ethical Cyber Behavioural Intention of Nigerian and South African Students: A Multi-Group Analysis Based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour

Cybertechnology has become a fundamental part of educational institutions, with the student’s routine to use these technologies to communicate, learn and play, causing a need for understanding the impact and general principles of ethical computer use in academia. However, the practice of cyberethics in these environments has presented many challenges for the institutions. This study, based on the theory of planned behaviour, examined the differences in ethical cyber behavioural intention of Nigerian and South African students using a multi-group analysis. The study adopted a survey research design– structured questionnaires were randomly distributed among students of two purposively selected universities, one in South Africa and the other Nigeria. Structural equation modelling was employed to test the proposed model fit. Overall, 450 undergraduate students participated in the survey; 343 respondents completed and returned the questionnaire, resulting in a response rate of 76.2%. The subjective norm was found to be statistically significant in influencing students’ ethical cyber behavioural intention with cyber technologies. The study contributes to the extant literature on the application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). The originality and value of this study can be viewed from the application of a socio-psychology theory to determine ethical cyber behavioural intention in relation to cybertechnology, which provides further evidence that the TPB can be applied to cyberethics research. Moreover, to the best of authors’ knowledge, this is a pioneer study that comprehensively examines the linkage of components of TPB with ethical cyber behavioural intention in joint samples from South Africa and Nigeria.

Effects of Mortality Salience on Physiological Arousal

Making the inevitability of mortality salient makes people more defensive about their self-esteem and worldviews. Theoretical arguments and empirical evidence point to a mediating role of arousal in this defensive process, but evidence from physiological measurement studies is scarce and inconclusive. The present study seeks to draw a comprehensive picture of how physiological arousal develops over time in the mortality salience (MS) paradigm, and whether contemplating one's mortality actually elicits more physiological arousal than reflecting on a death-unrelated aversive control topic. In a between-subjects design, participants were asked two open questions about their mortality or about dental pain. Cardiac, respiratory, and electrodermal indicators of arousal were measured both as participants provided written answers to the questions, and during a series of resting intervals surrounding the questions. A Bayes factor analysis indicated support for the hypothesis that the MS paradigm increases physiological arousal, both while answering the two open-ended questions and afterward. Regarding the MS versus dental pain comparison, the null hypothesis of no difference was supported for most analysis segments and signals. The results indicate that the arousal elicited by MS is not different from that elicited by dental pain salience. This speaks against the idea that worldview defense following MS occurs because MS produces higher physiological arousal. Of course, this finding does not rule the importance of other forms of arousal (i.e., subjective arousal) for MS effects.

Delay and death-thought accessibility: a meta-analysis

The dual-process component of Terror Management Theory (TMT) proposes that different types of threats lead to increases in death-thought accessibility (DTA) after different delay intervals. Experimental studies of terror management threats' effect on DTA were collected and coded for their use of explicitly death-related (vs. not explicitly death-related) threats, and for their use of delay and task-switching during the delay. Results reveal that studies using death-related threats achieved larger DTA effect-sizes when they included more task-switching or a longer delay between the threat and the DTA measurement. In contrast, studies using threats that were not explicitly death-related achieved smaller DTA effect-sizes when they included more task-switching between the threat and the DTA measurement. These findings provide partial support for the dual-process component's predictions regarding delay and DTA. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Uncertainty, God, and scrupulosity: Uncertainty salience and priming God concepts interact to cause greater fears of sin

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Difficulties tolerating uncertainty are considered central to scrupulosity, a moral/religious presentation of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We examined whether uncertainty salience (i.e., exposure to a state of uncertainty) caused fears of sin and fears of God, as well as whether priming God concepts affected the impact of uncertainty salience on those fears.

METHOD

An internet sample of community adults (N = 120) who endorsed holding a belief in God or a higher power were randomly assigned to an experimental manipulation of (1) salience (uncertainty or insecurity) and (2) prime (God concepts or neutral).

RESULTS

As predicted, participants who received the uncertainty salience and God concept priming reported the greatest fears of sin. There were no mean-level differences in the other conditions. The effect was not attributable to religiosity and the manipulations did not cause negative affect.

LIMITATIONS

We used a nonclinical sample recruited from the internet.

CONCLUSIONS

These results support cognitive-behavioral models suggesting that religious uncertainty is important to scrupulosity. Implications of these results for future research are discussed.