TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hein, Grit
A1  - Gamer, Matthias
A1  - Gall, Dominik
A1  - Gründahl, Marthe
A1  - Domschke, Katharina
A1  - Andreatta, Marta
A1  - Wieser, Matthias J.
A1  - Pauli, Paul
T1  - Social cognitive factors outweigh negative emotionality in predicting COVID-19 related safety behaviors
JF  - Preventive Medicine Reports
N2  - Emotion-motivation models propose that behaviors, including health behaviors, should be predicted by the same variables that also predict negative affect since emotional reactions should induce a motivation to avoid threatening situations. In contrast, social cognitive models propose that safety behaviors are predicted by a different set of variables that mainly reflect cognitive and socio-structural aspects. Here, we directly tested these opposing hypotheses in young adults (N = 4134) in the context of COVID-19-related safety behaviors to prevent infections. In each participant, we collected measures of negative affect as well as cognitive and socio-structural variables during the lockdown in the first infection wave in Germany. We found a negative effect of the pandemic on emotional responses. However, this was not the main predictor for young adults’ willingness to comply with COVID-19-related safety measures. Instead, individual differences in compliance were mainly predicted by cognitive and socio-structural variables. These results were confirmed in an independent data set. This study shows that individuals scoring high on negative affect during the pandemic are not necessarily more likely to comply with safety regulations. Instead, political measures should focus on cognitive interventions and the societal relevance of the health issue. These findings provide important insights into the basis of health-related concerns and feelings as well as behavioral adaptations.
KW  - social cognitive
KW  - negative affect
KW  - safety behavior
KW  - survey
KW  - COVID-19
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-265008
VL  - 24
ER  -