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In 2020, the SARS-COV-2 pandemic forced countries across the world to enforce measures such as wearing face masks. An important aspect of mask-wearing is that masks mainly protect other individuals, while causing a discomfort for the wearer. Therefore, the motivation to comply with such rules is altruism and mutual trust. Available vaccines leading to herd immunity might be the end of such regulations, but bring about different benefits and costs depending on how many people engage. The present online study employs scenarios inspired by game theory to obtain information about determinants of mask-wearing and vaccinating behaviors. Participants will be asked to decide if they would wear a mask in different situations, e.g. with family members or strangers, where the prior knowledge provided about the interaction partner is modulated. Further, they are asked to decide whether they get vaccinated in situations where perceived costs (side effects/monetary) and perceived herd immunity/social pressure are manipulated. We would like to obtain a behavioral measure of altruism by offering a monetary reward, that can either be transferred directly to the participant (low altruism) or a beneficial organization (high altruism) (!only if funding is granted!). Validated questionnaires allow to control for other factors, such as perceived vulnerability to disease, empathy and altruism. The cross-cultural approach will help to find generalizable conclusions that can help to shape informed health policies across Europe.

El present estudi es realitza a l’Escola de Sant Roc d’Olot, concretament a l’aula de P4 A, les granotes, la qual es caracteritzen per un grup d’alumnes amb actituds i interessos molt diversos que ajuden a cohesionar al grup i anar avançant en els nous aprenentatges. Així doncs, davant de la situació d’una manca de varietat de racons que es porten a terme a la primera mitja hora del matí, sense cap classe de criteri preestablert. Per tant, l'objectiu d'aquesta petita investigació és crear un conjunt de racons d'aprenentatge amb unes normes preestablertes i basats en la teoria de les intel·ligències múltiples de Howard Gardner. Un cop creades es presenten als alumnes, per poder avaluar si aquests racons els desperta més interès i l'aprenentatge de noves habilitats.

During medical pandemics, protective behaviors need to be motivated by effective communication, where finding predictors of fear and perceived health is of critical importance. The varying trajectories of the COVID-19 pandemic in different countries afford the opportunity to assess the unique influence of ‘macro-level’ environmental factors and ‘micro-level’ psychological variables on both fear and perceived health. Here, we investigate predictors of fear and perceived health using machine learning as lockdown restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic were introduced in Austria, Spain, Poland and Czech Republic. Over a seven-week period, 533 participants completed weekly self-report surveys which measured the target variables subjective fear of the virus and perceived health, in addition to potential predictive variables related to psychological factors, social factors, perceived vulnerability to disease (PVD), and economic circumstances. Viral spread, mortality and governmental responses were further included in the analysis as potential environmental predictors. Results revealed that our models could accurately predict fear of the virus (accounting for approximately 23% of the variance) using predictive factors such as worrying about shortages in food supplies and perceived vulnerability to disease (PVD), where interestingly, environmental factors such as spread of the virus and governmental restrictions did not contribute to this prediction. Furthermore, our results revealed that perceived health could be predicted using PVD, physical exercise, attachment anxiety and age as input features, albeit with smaller effect sizes. Taken together, our results emphasize the importance of ‘micro-level’ psychological factors, as opposed to ‘macro-level’ environmental factors, when predicting fear and perceived health, and offer a starting point for more extensive research on the influences of pathogen threat and governmental restrictions on the psychology of fear and health., PLoS ONE, 16 (3), ISSN:1932-6203