We're all in this together: Focus on community attenuates effects of pandemic-related financial hardship on reactance to COVID-19 public health regulations.

ABSTRACT: There has been resistance to COVID-19 public health restrictions partly due to changes and reductions in work, resulting in financial stress. Psychological reactance theory posits that such restrictions to personal freedoms result in anger, defiance, and motivation to restore freedom. In an online study (N = 301), we manipulated the target of COVID-19 restrictions as impacting self or community. We hypothesized that (a) greater pandemic-related financial stress would predict greater reactance, (b) the self-focused restriction condition would elicit greater reactance than the community-focused restriction condition, (c) reactance would be greatest for financially-stressed individuals in the self-focused condition, and (d) greater reactance would predict lower adherence to social distancing

SUBMITTER: Knapp ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8699617 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature