RAPID: Stress and Emotional Response to Uncertainty in the COVID-19 Pandemic

许多重大的社会决策都是在高度不确定的情况下做出的。一个人解决这种不确定性的能力可能会对从健康到工作表现的各种结果产生深远的影响。过去的研究表明，人们对不确定性表现出可靠的倾向，无论是积极的还是消极的情绪。这些个人偏见在很大程度上决定了对高度不确定性的反应好坏。这个项目利用新冠肺炎大流行带来的紧急机会，在社会一级的压力源的背景下促进对个人一级的偏见的理解。目前，关于社会层面的压力因素，如全球流行病，对个人层面的特质类偏见的影响，人们知之甚少。一些人在应对极端的社会不确定性时所经历的负面想法和感受可能会对健康、工作表现和人际关系产生有害的后果。这个项目为开发干预措施奠定了基础，以扰乱这些不适应的过程，有利于更有成效的反应。一项在线研究包括三种不同的价差测量方法(将不确定性归因于负面意义的倾向)。收集情绪/气质、韧性和可能受新冠肺炎大流行影响的社会因素(例如孤独感)的测量结果。研究中的一部分参与者在大流行(第一波)之前完成了价态偏向任务。在纵向设计中，将在大流行高峰期(第二波)和大流行结束后(第三波)对这些参与者进行重新评估。通过随着时间的推移对人们进行跟踪，有可能衡量随着全球大流行的作用，负面情绪更大地增加以及在疫情结束后更大程度的恢复所带来的影响。在第二波和第三波将增加一组新的参与者，以提供额外的数据，为横断面探索预测每个时间点的价偏差个体差异的机制提供数据。还将在每一波中探索与年龄相关的影响。这项研究考虑了人们如何学会“做得更好”，以增加幸福感和韧性，以应对社会威胁和不确定性。这些发现将揭示一些人如何能够克服与压力相关的负面增加，转而从积极的角度解决不确定性。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Many significant social decisions are made in situations of high uncertainty. A person’s ability to resolve such uncertainty can have profound implications for outcomes ranging from health to work performance. Past research has shown that people exhibit reliable tendencies to respond to uncertainty with either positive or negative emotions. These personal biases play a significant role in responding well or poorly to high uncertainty. This project leverages the urgent opportunity presented by the COVID-19 pandemic to advance the understanding of individual-level biases in the context of a societal-level stressor. Very little is currently known about the effects of societal-level stressors, such as a global pandemic, on individual-level trait-like biases. The negative thoughts and feelings some individuals experience in response to extreme societal uncertainty can have deleterious outcomes on health, work performance, and relationships. This project lays the foundation for developing interventions to disrupt these maladaptive processes in favor of more productive responses.An online study includes three distinct measures of valence bias (the tendency to ascribe uncertainty with a negative meaning). Measures of mood/temperament, resilience, and social factors likely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., loneliness) are collected. A subset of participants in the study completed the valence bias tasks before the pandemic (Wave 1). In a longitudinal design, these same participants will be re-assessed at the height of the pandemic (Wave 2) and again after the pandemic ends (Wave 3). By following people over time, it is possible to gauge the effects associated with a greater increase in negativity as a function of the global pandemic, as well as greater recovery after it ends. A new group of participants will be added at Waves 2 and 3 to provide additional data for a cross-sectional exploration of the mechanisms that predict individual differences in valence bias at each time point. Age-related effects will also be explored at each wave. The research considers how people can learn to "do it better" to increase well-being and resilience in response to societal threats and uncertainty. The findings will shed light on how some individuals are able to override stress-related increases in negativity and instead resolve uncertainty in a positive light.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.