Intolerance of uncertainty and information-seeking behavior: Experimental manipulation of threat relevance

Mapping the Relationship between Health-related Beliefs, Fear, Avoidance, and Depression: Lessons from the Pandemic and Beyond

The COVID-19 pandemic brought a mental health crisis, with depression symptoms increasing nearly three-fold compared to pre-pandemic levels. To explain this surge and to outline related novel treatment targets for post-pandemic psychiatric interventions, the current study examined cognitive, emotional, and behavioral predictors of depression (in the context of the recent pandemic). Participants completed measures assessing perceived danger, perceived infectiousness, and fear of the coronavirus (COVID-19). Participants also reported symptoms of depression and behavioral tendencies: pandemic-related compulsive checking, cleaning, and avoidance (of activities, situations, places, and people). A multiple mediation model revealed that the relationship between perceived infectiousness of the virus and depression was atemporally mediated by fear of the virus and pandemic-related avoidance of activities, situations, places, and people. Furthermore, avoidance played a uniquely important role in the mediation model. First, it directly mediated the relationship between perceived infectiousness and depression, even when omitting fear from the model. Second, avoidance was a discriminant predictor of depression, as neither pandemic-related checking and reassurance-seeking nor cleaning behavior mediated the relationship between cognition and depressive symptoms. Clinical implications are discussed, including how addressing the relationship between anxiety about viral infections and depression can prospectively increase treatment success as we move beyond the pandemic.

Motivation as a Lens for Understanding Information-seeking Behaviors

Most prior research characterizes information-seeking behaviors as serving utilitarian purposes, such as whether the obtained information can help solve practical problems. However, information-seeking behaviors are sensitive to different contexts (i.e., threat vs. curiosity), despite having equivalent utility. Furthermore, these search behaviors can be modulated by individuals' life history and personality traits. Yet the emphasis on utilitarian utility has precluded the development of a unified model, which explains when and how individuals actively seek information. To account for this variability and flexibility, we propose a unified information-seeking framework that examines information-seeking through the lens of motivation. This unified model accounts for integration across individuals' internal goal states and the salient features of the environment to influence information-seeking behavior. We propose that information-seeking is determined by motivation for information, invigorated either by instrumental utility or hedonic utility, wherein one's personal or environmental context moderates this relationship. Furthermore, we speculate that the final common denominator in guiding information-seeking is the engagement of different neuromodulatory circuits centered on dopaminergic and noradrenergic tone. Our framework provides a unified framework for information-seeking behaviors and generates several testable predictions for future studies.

Relationships between Intolerance of Uncertainty, Worry, Rumination, and Distress in College Students During the Coronavirus Pandemic: the Role of COVID-19 Threat Appraisals

Background

In two conditional process models, we examined whether intolerance of uncertainty (IU) had both direct and indirect effects on coronavirus anxiety (through worry) and depressive symptoms (through rumination) among college students; these associations were hypothesized to be more likely among students who appraised COVID-19 as highly threatening.

Method

Data were collected during the COVID-19 pandemic from September 2020 to November 2020 in the USA. Participants (n = 134) completed measures of IU, COVID-19 specific threat appraisal, rumination, worry, coronavirus anxiety, and depressive symptoms. The PROCESS macro (Model 8) was used for analyses with gender as a covariate.

Results

IU had a direct positive effect on coronavirus anxiety and the effect was strongest among students who perceived COVID-19 as more threatening. Threat appraisal did not moderate the IU–depressive symptoms relationship. IU had an indirect effect on depressive symptoms through rumination at all levels of threat appraisal. Unexpectedly, this indirect effect was strongest among students who perceived the pandemic as less threatening.

Conclusion

Results may inform interventions that address IU, threat appraisals, and repetitive negative thinking to mitigate symptoms of coronavirus anxiety and depression.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12529-022-10116-3.