Descriptive or injunctive: How do restaurant customers react to the guidelines of COVID-19 prevention measures? The role of psychological reactance

Leveraging Dynamic Norms to Reduce College Student Alcohol Use: A Test of Four Mediators

Social norms are common in persuasive messaging. For norms trending in a positive direction, it may be beneficial to emphasize change (i.e. dynamic norm) rather than the status quo (i.e. static norm). To test this proposition, we examined college students' responses to social norm messages encouraging moderate alcohol use. Undergraduates (N = 842) were randomly assigned to view a dynamic norm ("More college students drinking in moderation"), a static descriptive norm ("Most college students drink in moderation"), or a no message control. Four mechanisms were examined as potential mediators, three of which have been examined in previous work (preconformity, perceived importance, self-efficacy) and one of which was novel (psychological reactance). Results revealed that exposure to either social norm message (dynamic or static descriptive) was associated with more favorable attitude relative to a no message control. Attitude did not differ between the dynamic norm and static descriptive norm conditions. Only psychological reactance mediated the relationship between message condition (dynamic vs. static descriptive norm) and favorable attitude. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Reactance, Decisional Procrastination, and Hesitation: A Latent Class Analysis of Clutter Behavior

During the 2019-2020 global pandemic, mandated time at home suggested engagement in personal projects, such as home decluttering. Clutter (an overabundance of possessions) may impede one's quality of life by interfering with space livability and social connections and prompting negative affect and financial problems. The present study explored action-state orientation, psychological reactance, and decisional procrastination with 227 American adults (M age = 49.9 years old). A latent class analysis tested for differences in cognition across groups. Results supported that persons who struggle with clutter reflect clusters or "classes" given their self-reported cognitive processes, with hesitant and indecisive participants experiencing greater negative impacts of clutter than action-oriented and decisive participants. Our findings suggested improving the decision-making and goal-directed capacities of those struggling with clutter may be effective as preventive and/or interventive strategies. Future research might consider when hesitation to initiate challenging tasks and indecision emerge in the decluttering timeline and how those who are prone to these cognitions may be supported in managing their personal possessions.

Descriptive, injunctive, or the synergy of both? Experimenting normative information on behavioral changes under the COVID-19 pandemic

Backgrounds

The effectiveness of citizens' behavioral changes to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2, such as avoiding large social events, relies on science communication from policymakers and collective action among peer citizens. Extant studies recognize the potential effects of information stimuli on citizens' behavioral changes, including what epidemiological experts request (injunctive information) and what surrounding people behave (descriptive information). Yet, they have insufficiently assessed the co-occurrence and possible interaction of multiple information stimuli.

Methods

1,819 Japanese citizens aged 18 or over were recruited for an experimental survey during March 1-3, 2021 and asked their views on a hypothetical wedding attendance in Japan while being exposed to randomly assigned normative information stimuli. Their willingness to attend a wedding asked before and after the intervention was measured. Infection risk perception was also asked as a mediating variable.

Results

Findings suggest the constant supremacy of descriptive information and no synergistic effects in the interaction of multiple information stimuli. We also report that the effects of injunctive and descriptive information vary according to participants' risk perception, age, and trust in experts.

Conclusion

Our experimental test enables a systematic assessment of multiple normative information and confirms the primacy of descriptive information as the main driver of behavioral change. Communication by medical experts has limitations but is still effective in specific categories of the population.

Examining the effects of psychological reactance on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance: Comparison of two countries

Background

Despite the public acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines being necessary to achieve ample immunization rates and, in turn, put an end to the global pandemic, vaccine hesitancy and refusal are on the rise. To detect and address the concerns of those who are hesitant, it is critical to identify all potential factors behind vaccine decision-making in order to devise strategies to enhance vaccine acceptance and uptake.

Methods

We retrieved a total of 742 and 685 completed questionnaires from Iran and France, respectively; after initial cleaning and data screening, the number of usable questionnaires dropped to 714 and 664. We evaluate the distinct vaccination and lockdown restrictions in Iran and France and used multi-group analysis to evaluate structural path models of French and Iranian people, revealing a significant difference between the two groups in vaccination-related decisions. This empirical study is one of the first to employ the measurement invariance was evaluated using the measurement invariance for composite (MICOM) approach in testing partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) measurement invariance and one of the first to use both Henseler's MGA and Henseler's permutation method to perform multi-group analysis (MGA).

Results

MGA revealed significant differences in the effects of influential factors on vaccine acceptance across France and Iran. In other words, many determining factors are likely to be context-dependent. The study revealed that reactance (due to restrictions and perceived scarcity) and financial strain significantly influenced COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and uptake among Iranians; however, among the French, confidence, and convenience were far more influential.

Conclusions

These cross-cultural differences point to the importance of conducting additional research in this area that directly compares various effects across countries. Each country's public health authorities and policymakers could use these insights to develop more targeted strategies and, in turn, boost vaccination rates among the public.

Perceived legitimacy can moderate the effect of proscriptive versus prescriptive injunctions on intentions to comply with UK government COVID-19 guidelines and reactance

Proscriptive injunctions (i.e., telling people what they should not do) have been found in research to elicit greater perceptions of a threat to freedom, and greater reactance (anger, irritation and annoyance), than prescriptive injunctions (i.e., telling people what they should do), across several health and social behaviors. The current research investigated the effects of Injunction Type (proscriptive vs. prescriptive) and perceived legitimacy of the injunction, on intentions to comply with UK government behavioral guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic, and on reactance. In two online experimental studies (Study 1: N = 142; Study 2: N = 307), UK participants were presented with information about UK government COVID-19 guidelines that included either a proscriptive injunction or prescriptive injunction and reported their perceptions of the legitimacy of the injunction, their intentions to comply with government guidelines, and their reactance. In both Study 1 and Study 2, the effect of Injunction Type on intentions to comply and reactance was moderated by perceived legitimacy. In both studies, when perceived legitimacy was low, participants exposed to the proscriptive injunction indicated lower intentions to comply with UK government COVID-19 guidelines than did participants exposed to the prescriptive injunction. The findings imply that using a prescriptive injunction frame can elicit greater intentions to comply than using a proscriptive injunction frame when people perceive the injunction to be unreasonable. The results are discussed in relation to the role of legitimacy in determining the effectiveness of different types of injunctions on compliance with rules and guidelines.

Restaurant hygiene attributes and consumers’ fear of COVID-19: Does psychological distress matter?

Restaurant unhygienic affairs have concerned consumers and policy makers alike since the onset of COVID-19 pandemic. The current study incorporates restaurant hygiene attributes—consumers-use spaces, personal hygiene of staff, workplace hygiene— and their association with consumers’ fear of COVID-19 (CFC). Moreover, how CFC educes consumers’ psychological distress (CSD) and the consequent behavioral reactions—preventive behavior (PB) and revisit intention (RI)— has been examined. Furthermore, perceived vulnerability (PV) employed as a moderator between hygiene attributes and CFC. Data collected from 407 respondents via Chinese online platform was analyzed in SPSS 25.0 and AMOS 24.0. Results showed significant association between hygiene attributes and CFC. Similarly, CFC significantly engenders CSD, which consequently effects PB. Contrarily to our hypothesis, CSD positively developed RI. Lastly, PV moderated the relationships between antecedents and CFC. Findings add to the literature of health management, consumer psychology, and service management with practical relevance, followed by limitations and potential future avenues.

Safety or service? Effects of employee prosocial safety-rule-breaking on consumer satisfaction

The COVID-19 pandemic makes restaurants implement new safety rules. However, because of consumers' and employees' resistance, employees may break these rules to improve the service experience. This paper examines how employees' prosocial safety-rule-breakings (PSRB) affect consumer satisfaction. We propose that PSRB has two competing effects on consumers' (including both requesters and bystanders) satisfaction via the mediating roles of service performance and perceived safety. We tested our proposed model in two experiments, adopting a 2 (Consumer role: Requesters vs. Bystanders) × 2 (PSRB level: Low vs. High) between-subject experimental design. Our findings suggest that PSRB has a strong negative relationship with bystanders' service performance rating. PSRB harms both requesters' and bystanders' perceived safety. PSRB reduces consumer satisfaction, and the relationship is stronger for bystanders (vs. requesters). This study demonstrates the importance for hospitality organizations to ensure safety rule compliance during and after the pandemic.

The Moderator Role of Financial Well-Being on the Effect of Job Insecurity and the COVID-19 Anxiety on Burnout: A Research on Hotel-Sector Employees in Crisis

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), hotel-sector employees attempted to cope with the fear of becoming infected; however, they were also faced with job insecurity. Both the anxiety over COVID-19 and the risk of job insecurity have affected the employees’ economic and social conditions as well as their mental state. The present study examined the effect of COVID-19 anxiety and job insecurity perceptions on the burnout levels of hotel-sector employees and the moderator role of the employees’ financial well-being on this relationship. The study was conducted by collecting data from 396 participants who worked in 17 different five-star hotels in Antalya, Turkey. Because of social isolation and social distancing rules, our research data were obtained using an online questionnaire to avoid close contact with other people. The findings showed that COVID-19 anxiety and perceptions of job insecurity had negative effects on hotel employees in the form of mental burnout. In addition, we determined that as an individual characteristic, financial well-being was a moderator variable that affected the severity of burnout based on COVID-19 anxiety and job insecurity. The research findings exhibited theoretical and practical contributions for decision makers and researchers.