In addition to developing effective medicines and vaccines, pandemic preparedness also comprises general health-related, behavioral, and psychological aspects related to being more resistant in the case of future pandemics. In the context of the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, recent research revealed that reduced perceived immune fitness was the best predictor of reporting more frequent and more severe COVID-19 symptoms. Up until now (June 2022), during the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of patients who have been hospitalized were characterized as being overweight. It is therefore essential to further evaluate the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and immune fitness. This was performed by analyzing pooled data from previously published studies, conducted among N = 8586 Dutch adults. It was hypothesized that attaining a normal, healthy body weight is associated with optimal perceived immune fitness. The analysis revealed that a deviation from normal weight (i.e., having a BMI outside the range of 18.5 to 24.9 kg/m2) was associated with significantly reduced perceived immune fitness, as assessed with the immune status questionnaire and a single item perceived immune fitness scale. The effects were significant for both underweight and overweight groups and most pronounced for the obese groups. The results suggest that attaining a normal, healthy body weight might significantly contribute to maintaining adequate perceived immune fitness. Therefore, attaining a normal body weight might be an essential component of pandemic preparedness and should be supported by creating awareness and promoting the importance of regular exercise and the consumption of healthy food.

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Pandemic Preparedness: Maintaining Adequate Immune Fitness by Attaining a Normal, Healthy Body Weight

The ultimatum game undoubtely lists the largest experimental literature of the past three decades. In this article, we focus on the choice of the proposer of the ultimatum game and the explanatory variables that may influence the amount offered. We perform a meta-analysis with a total of 97 observations from simple ultimatum game gathered through 42 articles published between 1983 and 2012. While the theoretical prediction announces that the equilibrium offer should be zero, our results show that the weighted average offer is 42.3% of the amount at stake. Among the numerous variables studied, only being an economist has a significant impact on the amounts offered.

Ultimatum game: A meta-analysis of the past three decades of experimental research

Highlights The pandemic has massively exacerbated the sense of loneliness of high-school students, especially of young women. The pandemic has changed the use of technology by high-school students for social, information, leisure, and educational purposes. Young women changed their use of technology more than young men to stay in touch with their family and for information seeking and study purposes. High-school students’ sense of community has undergone modest variations due to the pandemic. Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has brought important changes to how we engage in relationships of any kind. To combat the spread of the virus, schools resorted to remote-learning, and teenagers had to rely on various technologies to meet many of the needs that they used to satisfy offline (e.g., social, informational, and recreational/leisure purposes). This article was written to investigate the changes that the students at an Italian high school went through in terms of use of technologies, loneliness, and sense of community, through a survey focusing on their retrospective perceptions. The study was carried out on 917 students. In general, we have found that the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly increased the perception of loneliness in teenagers (especially in female respondents), as well as their use of technologies for social, informational, and leisure purposes. However, maybe thanks to the opportunities provided by ICTs and remote learning, the sense of community in Italian teenagers was only marginally impacted.

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How the COVID-19 Pandemic Changed Adolescents’ Use of Technologies, Sense of Community, and Loneliness: A Retrospective Perception Analysis

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Association of Social-cognitive Factors With Individual Preventive Behaviors of Covid-19 Among a Mixed-sample of Older Adults From China and Germany

Identifying modifiable correlates of older adults' preventive behaviors is contributable to the prevention of the COVID-19 and future pandemics. This study aimed to examine the associations of social-cognitive factors (motivational and volitional factors) with three preventive behaviors (hand washing, facemask wearing, and physical distancing) in a mixed sample of older adults from China and Germany and to evaluate the moderating effects of countries. A total of 578 older adults (356 Chinese and 222 German) completed the online cross-sectional study. The questionnaire included demographics, three preventive behaviors before and during the pandemic, motivational factors (health knowledge, attitude, subjective norm, risk perception, motivational self-efficacy (MSE), intention), and volitional factors (volitional self-efficacy (VSE), planning, and self-monitoring) of preventive behaviors. Results showed that most social-cognitive factors were associated with three behaviors with small-to-moderate effect sizes (f2 = 0.02 to 0.17), controlled for demographics and past behaviors. Country moderated five associations, including VSE and hand washing, self-monitoring and facemask wearing, MSE and physical distancing, VSE and physical distancing, and planning and physical distancing. Findings underline the generic importance of modifiable factors and give new insights to future intervention and policymaking. Country-related mechanisms should be considered when aiming to learn from other countries about the promotion of preventive behaviors. 

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Association of Social-Cognitive Factors with Individual Preventive Behaviors of COVID-19 among a Mixed-Sample of Older Adults from China and Germany

A systematic review of the literature investigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological and psychosocial factors was completed. Published literature was examined using electronic databases to search psychosocial factors such as beliefs and media persuasion, social support, coping, risk perception, and compliance and social distancing; and psychological factors as anxiety, stress, depression, and other consequences of COVID-19 that impacted mental health among the pandemic. A total of 294 papers referring to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (December 2019–June 2020) were selected for the review. The findings suggested a general deterioration of mental health, delineating a sort of “psychological COVID-19 syndrome”, characterized by increased anxiety, stress, and depression, and decreased well-being and sleep quality. The COVID-19 effect on the psychological dimensions of interest was not the same for everyone. Indeed, some socio-demographic variables exacerbated mental health repercussions that occurred due to the pandemic. In particular, healthcare workers and young women (especially those in postpartum condition) with low income and low levels of education have been shown to be the least resilient to the consequences of the pandemic.

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Impact of COVID-19 First Wave on Psychological and Psychosocial Dimensions: A Systematic Review

It is a fact that technologies do not have fixed effects on people. Some researches show how phenomena such as social influence and conformity appear increasingly multiform and complex, in particular, because people engage more and more in web interactions. The study of conformity in the online environment has highlighted how, to model these dynamics, it is necessary to consider the peculiarities of such environment, since it presents characteristics that differentiate its interactions from the face-to-face ones. Therefore, this research aims at investigating whether and how the type of environment influences the level of conformity to different types of local norms shown to the experimental subjects during a bargaining web-based game. The evidence of the research, conducted on 484 participants, have suggested that there are different psychological processes involved in the conformity phenomenon depending on these factors. The results are discussed in the light of Self-categorization theory, as well as the SIDE model, and illustrate the relevance of considering these processes and their characteristics to promote the implementation of more efficient (and effective) online environments.

Viola Filindassi

Papers

Impact of COVID-19 First Wave on Psychological and Psychosocial Dimensions: A Systematic Review

Social Norm Spreading in Real and Virtual Environments: Pro-social Versus Pro-self Norm.