RAPID: Collaborative Research: Harnessing Language to Reduce Anxiety and Enhance Rational Perspectives and Decision-Making in the Face of Ebola Concerns

RAPID：协作研究：面对埃博拉问题，利用语言减少焦虑并增强理性观点和决策

• 批准号: 1509435
• 负责人: Jason Moser
• 金额: $ 0.4万
• 依托单位: Michigan State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-12-01 至 2016-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1509435&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Collaborative; Research; Harnessing; Language

The threat of Ebola gripping our nation has incited a crisis that has far-reaching implications for public health and policy. This poses an important and timely opportunity to simultaneously (a) advance scientific knowledge concerning how self-control works in consequential, high-stakes contexts, and (b) translate existing research in this area to enhance public health and policy surrounding Ebola and future crises involving similar threats. The proposed research will capitalize on these opportunities by using methods from neuroscience and social psychology to examine whether a well-studied, simple linguistic shift that promotes self-control can be harnessed to reduce anxiety and enhance short- and long-term Ebola-related decision-making and behavior. This project was submitted in response to NSF 15-006 Dear Colleague Letter on the Ebola Virus. Previous work by the PI (Ethan Kross, University of Michigan) and colleagues has shown that using one's own name to refer to the self during introspection (i.e., "Why is Ethan feeling this way?"), rather than the first person pronoun "I" (i.e., "Why am I feeling this way?"), powerfully enhances people's ability to control their thoughts, feelings, and behavior under stress, facilitates emotionally intelligent decision-making, and does so effortlessly. These shifts in language facilitate self-control by providing the psychological distance needed to calmly navigate stressful thoughts and events. Building on this work, the proposed research will manipulate whether people reflect on their thoughts and feelings about Ebola using 1st or 3rd person perspectives, and examine whether these shifts in language reduce Ebola-related anxiety and irrational decision-making and behavior.

埃博拉病毒威胁着我们的国家，引发了一场对公共卫生和政策产生深远影响的危机。这提供了一个重要而及时的机会，可以同时（a）推进关于自我控制如何在后果严重的高风险环境中发挥作用的科学知识，（B）转化该领域的现有研究，以加强围绕埃博拉和未来涉及类似威胁的危机的公共卫生和政策。这项拟议中的研究将利用这些机会，利用神经科学和社会心理学的方法来研究是否可以利用一种经过充分研究的、简单的语言转变来促进自我控制，以减少焦虑，并增强短期和长期与埃博拉相关的决策和行为。该项目是为了响应NSF 15-006关于埃博拉病毒的亲爱的同事信而提交的。PI（Ethan Kross，密歇根大学）及其同事先前的研究表明，在内省过程中使用自己的名字来指代自我（即，“伊桑为什么会有这种感觉？），而不是第一人称代词“我”（即，“我为什么会有这种感觉？），有力地增强了人们在压力下控制自己的思想、感情和行为的能力，促进了情感智能决策，而且毫不费力。语言的这些变化通过提供冷静地应对压力思想和事件所需的心理距离来促进自我控制。在这项工作的基础上，拟议的研究将操纵人们是否使用第一或第三人称视角来反思他们对埃博拉的想法和感受，并检查这些语言的转变是否减少了与埃博拉相关的焦虑和非理性决策和行为。