Fighting the COVID‐19 pandemic requires large numbers of citizens to adopt disease‐preventive practices. We contend that national identification can mobilize and motivate people to engage in preventive behaviors to protect the collective, which in return would heighten national identification further. To test these reciprocal links, we conducted studies in two countries with diverse national tactics toward curbing the pandemic: (1) a two‐wave longitudinal survey in China (Study 1, N = 1200), where a national goal to fight COVID‐19 was clearly set, and (2) a five‐wave longitudinal survey in the United States (Study 2, N = 1001), where the national leader, President Trump, rejected the severity of COVID‐19 in its early stage. Results revealed that national identification was associated with an increase in disease‐preventive behaviors in both countries in general. However, higher national identification was associated with greater trust in Trump's administration among politically conservative American participants, which then was associated with slower adoption of preventive behaviors. The reciprocal effect of disease‐preventive behaviors on national identification was observed only in China. Overall, our findings suggest that although national identification may serve as a protective factor in curbing the pandemic, this beneficial effect was reduced in some political contexts. Highlights Policymakers should note that national identity serves as a protective factor in curbing the COVID‐19 pandemic. Narratives that highlight the collective agency of people would be useful in promoting disease‐preventive actions as long as they are also endorsed by national leaders. National leaders should provide clear and consistent recommendations in promoting disease‐preventive actions. Practitioners and policymakers should be aware of how the communication strategies they use would be affected by society’s political contexts. Mobilizing disease‐preventive actions through a patriotic frame might not be useful when national leaders did not unambiguously promote disease prevention.

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Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, pertinent conspiracy theories have proliferated online, raising the question: How might believing in those conspiracy theories be linked with engagement in disease-preventive behaviours? To answer this, we conducted a repeated cross-sectional survey of around 1500 respondents to examine the link between conspiracy-theory beliefs and disease-preventive behaviours across six time-points in the United States from early February to late March 2020. The findings reveal that believing in risk-acceptance conspiracy theories (RA-CTs; e.g., “COVID-19 is a man-made bioweapon”) was linked to more preventive behaviours. However, believing in risk-rejection conspiracy theories (RR-CTs; e.g., “COVID-19 is like influenza and was purposefully exaggerated”) was associated with fewer preventive behaviours. These differential links were mediated by risk perception and negative emotions and modulated by the stage of the outbreak—RA-CTs predicted higher risk perception in the mild stage, whereas RR-CTs predicted lower risk perception in the severe stage.

Given the current environmental situation and social change in China, we explored the relationships between the Dark Triad traits (Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy) and environmental attitudes (beliefs regarding environmentally related issues), and the mediating roles of future orientation (the tendency to plan for meeting long-term objectives) and place attachment (the emotional connection with the place of residence) in these relationships. Using a national sample from all 31 provinces of mainland China (N = 998), we found that the psychometric structure of the Dark Triad was well confirmed under Chinese culture. The Dark Triad as a whole was negatively related to environmental attitudes, but narcissism was not significantly associated with environmental attitudes when the three Dark Triad traits were considered as the predictors simultaneously. Future orientation and place attachment mediated the association between the Dark Triad and environmental attitudes. These findings enrich our understanding of the relevant variables of environmental attitudes and provide references for China's government and other developing countries to improve environmental issues. The uniqueness of narcissism could expand the understanding of the commonality and diversity among the Dark Triad traits, and an efficient tool of the Dark Triad was provided under Chinese culture.