Until vaccines or treatments are widely available and used, behavioral change (e.g. social distancing) on an unparalleled collective scale is the chief way to curb the spread of COVID-19. Relying on ideology and collective action models as conceptual frameworks, in the present study the role of ideological and psychological factors in COVID-19-related opinions, health compliance behaviors, and collective action were examined in three countries. Results, examining country as a moderator, showed some politically conservative orientations, especially social dominance orientation, relate to less collective action, less support of measures to manage COVID-19, and lower compliance. Variables, including empathy for those affected by COVID-19 and group efficacy also predicted COVID-19-related attitudes and behavior. Belief in science and perceived risk also emerged as key factors to impact compliance-related attitudes and behaviors. Implications for motivating collective compliance are discussed.

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Chronic worry and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms are associated with infrequent savoring, and high dampening, of positive emotions. The goal of the present study was to investigate the indirect role of GAD-relevant processes, including intolerance of uncertainty (IU), fear of negative emotional contrasts, and negative beliefs about positive emotion and its regulation, in the relationship between GAD symptom severity and the tendency to engage in dampening and not savor positive emotions. Community participants ( N = 233) completed questionnaires online. In separate models, IU, fear of negative emotional contrasts, and negative beliefs about positive emotion and its regulation fully mediated the relationships between GAD symptom severity and greater dampening and lower savoring. However, controlling for depression, only IU remained a significant mediator. A post hoc latent analysis of the mediators provided support for an underlying construct that may reflect intolerance of uncomfortable states. Intolerance of uncomfortable states was found to significantly mediate the relationship between GAD symptoms and greater dampening and lower savoring. Difficulty withstanding uncertainty may be particularly relevant in understanding why people with elevated GAD symptoms engage in efforts to avoid experiencing positive emotions. Further, the findings suggest that there may be a common factor underlying a variety of GAD-associated constructs reflecting a broad intolerance of uncomfortable inner states. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41811-022-00145-x.

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Right-wing ideology and cognitive ability, including objective numeracy, have been found to relate negatively. Although objective and subjective numeracy correlate positively, it is unclear whether subjective numeracy relates to political ideology in the same way. Replicating and extending previous research, across two samples of American adults (ns= 455, 406), those who performed worse on objective numeracy tasks scored higher on right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO), and they self-identified as more conservative on general, social, and economic continua. Controlling for objective numeracy, subjective numeracy related positively to measures of right-wing ideologies. In other words, those who strongly (vs. weakly) endorsed right-wing ideologies believed they are good with numbers yet performed worse on numeracy tasks. We discuss implications for the opposing direction of associations between ideology with objective versus subjective numeracy and similarities with literature on overconfidence.

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Prior research has revealed a native-accent advantage, whereby nonnative-accented speech is more difficult to process than native-accented speech. Nonnative-accented speakers also experience more negative social judgments. In the current study, we asked three questions. First, does exposure to nonnative-accented speech increase speech intelligibility or decrease listening effort, thereby narrowing the native-accent advantage? Second, does lower intelligibility or higher listening effort contribute to listeners’ negative social judgments of speakers? Third and finally, does increased intelligibility or decreased listening effort with exposure to speech bring about more positive social judgments of speakers? To address these questions, normal-hearing adults listened to a block of English sentences with a native accent and a block with nonnative accent. We found that once participants were accustomed to the task, intelligibility was greater for nonnative-accented speech and increased similarly with exposure for both accents. However, listening effort decreased only for nonnative-accented speech, soon reaching the level of native-accented speech. In addition, lower intelligibility and higher listening effort was associated with lower ratings of speaker warmth, speaker competence, and willingness to interact with the speaker. Finally, competence ratings increased over time to a similar extent for both accents, with this relationship fully mediated by intelligibility and listening effort. These results offer insight into how listeners process and judge unfamiliar speakers.