The study compares empirical results on the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (causing COVID-19) fatality risk perception of US adult residents stratified for age, gender, and race in mid-March 2020 (N 1 = 1,182) and mid-April 2020 (N 2 = 953). While the fatality risk perception has increased from March 2020 to April 2020, our findings suggest that many US adult residents severely underestimated their absolute and relative fatality risk (i.e., differentiated for subgroups defined by pre-existing medical conditions and age) at both time points compared to current epidemiological figures. These results are worrying because risk perception, as our study indicates, relates to actual or intended healthprotective behaviour that can reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission rates.

This study examined the relationship between chronic pain acceptance and affective well-being from a coping perspective. One hundred-fifty patients from a multidisciplinary pain centre provided self-report data including measures of pain acceptance, positive and negative affect, and accommodative flexibility. The bivariate and multiple correlation patterns were consistent with the assumption that pain willingness (the attitudinal component of pain acceptance including the recognition of the uncontrollability of pain) primarily reduces negative affect, whereas activity engagement (the behavioural component of pain acceptance including the pursuit of life activities despite pain) additionally produces positive affect. The data furthermore suggested activity engagement as a mediating link between pain willingness and positive affect. Moderation analyses showed that accommodative flexibility (the general readiness to adjust personal goals to situational constraints) facilitates both pain willingness and activity engagement--especially when average pain intensity is high. In sum, the results support the view that chronic pain patients' well-being is closely tied to the maintenance of life activities which presupposes an accepting attitude towards pain.

We submit that with advancing age and the age-inherent shrinking of life-time reserves, intrinsic-valuerational, that is, ego-transcending goals tend to gain priority over extrinsic-instrumental goals that aim at future personal benefits. This proposition is investigated in four studies that combine questionnaire assessments and experimental analyses. In Study 1, age differences in extrinsic-instrumental and intrinsic-valuerational orientations are analyzed in a cross-sectional study involving 359 participants in the age range from 35 to 84 years. In Study 2, we ask whether the postulated shift in goal orientations could be simulated by inducing a cognitive focus on themes of death and dying (N = 371). Studies 3 and 4 (Ns = 50 and 86) serve to replicate and expand the findings with an experimental setup, paying particular attention to the moderating role of accommodative flexibility and to implicit preferences. Taken together, the results of this research substantiate the assumption that the experience of narrowing life-time reserves activates accommodative processes that enhance the disengagement from egocentric-individualistic concerns.

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The present study explores the impact of religiosity during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020). The focus is on associations between religiosity, coronavirus anxiety, and preventive behavior. Participants were 1,182 U.S. citizens (50% female; 20 -83 years of age). Highly religious participants scored higher on the somatic component of coronavirus anxiety (emotionality) but lower on the cognitive component (worry). With regard to preventive behavior, highly religious participants reported more unreasonable behavior (e.g., avoiding 5G networks, hoarding toilet paper) than participants with low religiosity; at the bivariate level, there were no differences in reasonable behavior (e.g., physical contact avoidance, frequent handwashing). A comprehensive mediation model showed emotionality-mediated associations between religiosity and unreasonable behavior (positive indirect effect) but also worry-mediated associations between religiosity and reasonable behavior (negative indirect effect). The results remained stable when controlling for relevant sociodemographic variables. The discussion centers on religiosity, information processing, and rationality during a global health crisis situation.