The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to numerous new conspiracy theories related to the virus. This study aimed to investigate a range of individual predictors of beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories that account for sociodemographic characteristics (age, gender, education, economic standard, the importance of religion, and political self-identification), distinctive motivational…
Psychology
Chinese App User’s Needs Profile: From Questionnaire Measurement to Behavior Analysis
With the widespread use of mobile devices, the Apps people install and use could be closely linked to their needs. A precise profile of the needs of the user has become a vital foundation of the experience of the user. Previous studies mainly rely on self-reporting to understand the subjective…
Age and Education Effects on a Novel Syntactic Assessment Battery for Elderly Adults
The purpose of this study was to delineate the properties of a novel syntactic assessment battery and to present descriptive data on normal elderly individuals. We administered the Syntactic Assessment Battery (hereinafter SAB) using a sentence-picture paradigm to 195 normal elderly adults in three age groups (60–69, 70–79, and 80–90)…
A Gestalt Theory Approach to Structure in Language
The fact that human language is highly structured and that, moreover, the way it is structured shows striking similarities in the world’s languages has been addressed from two different perspectives. The first, and more traditional, generative hypothesis is that the similarities are due to an innate language faculty. There is…
Risk-Aversion for Negative Health Outcomes May Promote Individual Compliance to Containment Measures in Covid-19 Pandemic
First-person experience of stressful life events can change individuals’ risk attitudes, driving to increased or decreased risk perception. This shift to more risk-averse or risk-loving behaviors may find a correlate in the individual psycho-socio-emotional profile. To this purpose, we aimed to estimate the relationship between differences in risk-taking attitudes toward…
Adjustment of Couples to the Transition to Retirement: The Interplay of Intra- and Interpersonal Emotion Regulation in Daily Life
Background: Retirement is a central transition in late adulthood and requires adjustment. These processes not only affect the retired individuals but also their romantic partners. The aim of this study is to investigate the interplay of intrapersonal emotion regulation (rumination) with interpersonal regulation processes (disclosure quality). Furthermore, the associations of…
Conspiracy Mentality Predicts Public Opposition to Foreign Trade
The proliferation of protectionist sentiments and policies has raised questions about the psychological sources of trade openness among the public. The current research investigated the effects of a previously neglected factor on attitudes toward international trade: conspiracy mentality. Conspiracy mentality describes the generalized belief that political and economic events are…
Lessons From the UK's Lockdown: Discourse on Behavioural Science in Times of COVID-19
In recent years behavioural science has quickly become embedded in national level governance. As the contributions of behavioural science to the UK’s COVID-19 response policies in early 2020 became apparent, a debate emerged in the British media about its involvement. This served as a unique opportunity to capture public discourse…
What Does the Body Communicate With Postural Oscillations? A Clinical Investigation Hypothesis
The evolution of the foot and the attainment of the bipedia represent a distinctive characteristic of the human species. The force of gravity is dissipated through the tibial astragalic joints, and the movement of the ankle is manifested on a sagittal plane. However, this is in contrast with other studies…
Marital Surname Change and Marital Duration Among Divorcées in a Canadian County
Women’s marital surname change has been discussed as comprising one possible signal of intention to remain married, and may be perceived as such, and valued, by husbands. Here, the practice was investigated as a potential predictor of marital duration among couples who went on to divorce. An archival analysis was…
Is There a “Gestalt Bias” in Indulgence? Subjectively Constructing Food Units Into Wholes (vs. Parts) Increases Desire to Eat and Actual Consumption
In the present work we extend research into the unit bias effect and its extension—the portion size effect—by demonstrating the existence of a “Gestalt bias.” Drawing on the tenets of Gestalt psychology, we show that a unit bias effect can be observed for food portions that are composed of identical…
The Efficacy of a Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy Treatment for Fear of Flying: A Retrospective Study
Background: Fear of flying (FoF) is a phobia with 10–40% prevalence in the industrialized world. FoF is accompanied by severe economic, social, vocational, and emotional consequences. In recent years, virtual reality (VR)-based exposure therapy (VRET) for FoF has been introduced. Positive long-term efficacy of FoF-VRET has been reported by several…