Search

Background: Vaccine hesitancy and resistance pose significant threats to controlling pandemics and preventing infectious diseases. In a group of individuals unvaccinated against the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (COVID-19), we investigated how age, intolerance of uncertainty (IU), and their interaction affected the likelihood of having changed one's vaccination decision a year later. We hypothesized that higher IU would increase the likelihood of becoming vaccinated, particularly among individuals of younger age. We predicted that this effect would remain significant, even after controlling for delay discounting and trust in science., Purpose: The goal of this research was to understand the factors influencing changes in vaccination decisions among the vaccine hesitant., Methods: In a larger longitudinal study, ~7,500 participants from Prolific.co completed demographic and vaccination status questions, a delay discounting task, and the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale in June-August 2021. Approximately 3,200 participants completed a follow-up survey in July-August 2022, answering questions about vaccination status, reasons for vaccination decision, and trust in science. We analyzed data from 251 participants who initially had no intention of getting vaccinated and completed the follow-up survey; 38% reported becoming vaccinated in the intervening year., Results: Data were analyzed using multilevel logistic regression. Over and above other factors related to vaccination decisions (delay discounting, trust in science), younger participants were more likely to change their decision and become vaccinated a year later, especially if they had higher IU, confirming our predictions. Primary reasons for becoming vaccinated were necessity and seeking protection against the virus., Conclusions: These findings highlight the complex interplay between age, uncertainty, and vaccination decisions, and inform health policies by suggesting the need for tailoring interventions to specific concerns in different age groups., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.)

Background: Navigating social situations can be challenging due to uncertainty surrounding the intentions and strategies of others, which remain hidden and subject to change. Prior research suggests that individuals with anxiety-related symptoms struggle to adapt their learning in uncertain, non-social environments. Anxiety-prone individuals encounter challenges in social functioning, yet research on learning under uncertainty in social contexts is limited. In this preregistered study, we investigated whether individuals with higher levels of trait anxiety and fear of negative evaluation encounter difficulties in adjusting their learning rates in social contexts with stable or volatile outcome contingencies., Methods: We implemented a modified trust game (N = 190), where participants either retained or lost their investments based on their interactions with two players in volatile or stable environments. Participants also completed a matching non-social control task involving interactions with slot machines., Results: Results from computational modeling revealed significantly higher learning rates in social compared to non-social settings. Trait anxiety did not affect the adaptability of learning rates. Individuals with heightened fear of negative evaluation were more sensitive to social compared to non-social outcomes, as reflected in their stay/switch behavior and, though less conclusive, in their learning rates., Limitations: While transdiagnostic and dimensional approaches are important for investigating disturbed social functioning, the inclusion of clinical samples in future studies may contribute to a broader generalization of these findings regarding behavioral variances in uncertain social environments., Conclusions: Individuals with increased fear of negative evaluation may demonstrate heightened sensitivity to learning in uncertain social contexts. This leads to heightened responsiveness to recent outcomes in their interactions with others, potentially contributing to their problems in social functioning., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Epistemic trust refers to the trust in communicated knowledge, specifically an individual's ability to regard knowledge conveyed by others as meaningful, relevant to oneself, and applicable to other contexts. This area has received considerable attention in recent psychological literature, though predominantly from a theoretical perspective. The main objective of this study was to test the factorial validity of the Epistemic Trust, Mistrust, and Credulity Questionnaire (ETMCQ) on an Argentine setting. Based on two studies (Study 1, n = 1018; Study 2, n = 559), the factorial structure of the instrument and its internal consistency were examined (S1 Appendix). In the second study, the factorial structure was confirmed, test-retest reliability was analysed, and associations between epistemic stances and sociodemographic variables, hypomentalisation, attachment styles, childhood traumatic experiences, and anxious-depressive symptomatology were explored. A satisfactory three-factor solution with 15 items and residual correlations was found in both studies, with stable scores over time. Significant positive correlations were found with anxious and fearful-avoidant attachment, hypomentalisation, childhood traumatic experiences, and psychopathological symptomatology. Post-hoc analysis revealed that, on the one hand, gender acts as a moderator in the relationship between hypomentalisation and epistemic mistrust. On the other hand, economic level and educational level moderate the relationship between hypomentalisation and epistemic credulity. Measurement invariance across gender was tested and found satisfactory, with significant differences subsequently observed in the epistemic trust factor. In conclusion, the Argentine version of the ETMCQ provides an empirical measure for use in non-clinical samples. Its application could facilitate clinically and theoretically relevant findings., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Rodriguez Quiroga et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Distrust in science has been linked to scepticism over vaccines and climate change. Using data from nationally representative surveys administered in eight key countries for global efforts to mitigate climate change and COVID-19 (Australia, Brazil, China, India, Japan, South Africa, the UK and US), we find that distrust in scientists was an important predictor variable for most sceptics, who were sceptical of one issue but not both, in February 2021, when most countries had experienced their first wave of the pandemic. However, the association was significantly weaker among the segment of hardcore sceptics who were both climate sceptics and antivaxxers. We demonstrate that these individuals tended to possess many of the typical sceptic characteristics such as high distrust in social institutions and rightward political orientation, which are (collectively) suggestive of an underlying sceptic mindset rather than a specific distrust of scientists. Our results suggest that different types of sceptics necessitate different strategies to dispel scepticism., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Clulow, Reiner. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: The research on the relationship between interpersonal trust and health has primarily focused on Western contexts, with scarce attention in developing contexts. Addressing this gap, the study examines the association between interpersonal trust (both generalised and particularised) and health outcomes (self-rated health /SRH, and depression) among Indian adults, considering the moderating roles of social statuses (gender and caste) and macro-level factors like district-level income inequality., Methods: The study draws on data from the World Health Organization's (WHO) Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE) Wave-1, collected between 2007 and 2010. This dataset provides a comprehensive overview of health outcomes, including self-rated health (SRH) and depression, socio-cultural status of adults aged 18 and above in India. Additionally, district-level data on income inequality, quantified through the Gini index, were incorporated to examine the influence of contextual socioeconomic influence on the trust-health relationship. Multilevel regression analysis with interaction effects with social statuses and income inequality at district was employed in the analysis to investigate the intricate relationship between interpersonal trust (both generalised and particularised) and health outcomes., Results: The study reveals that while generalised trust does not directly influence depression or SRH, particularised trust acts as a protective factor for both health outcomes. Gender-specific interaction effect shows that generalised trust reduces depression among males and improves SRH among females. Notably, caste does not significantly moderate the trust-health relationship. High district-level income inequality, however, modifies these associations: generalised trust is associated with improved SRH in areas of high inequality, whereas particularised trust correlates with increased depression in these districts., Conclusion: The findings highlight the complex dynamics between interpersonal trust, social status, and income inequality in shaping health outcomes in India. Generalised trust emerges as a potential buffer against the health-detrimental effects of income inequality, providing crucial insights for developing targeted health interventions. These results offer valuable guidance for global health policymakers and practitioners in effectively allocating development aid to enhance health outcomes, especially among the most marginalised groups., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

What are the health effects of violent conflict? It is well known that wars kill civilians away from the battlefield and long after the fighting has stopped. Yet why this happens remains only partially understood. While we have good evidence that factors such as the destruction of infrastructure, political neglect, and the out-migration of health workers - what may be called supply-side factors - negatively affect health outcomes, we know much less about how violence shapes the attitudes and behavior towards healthcare use among civilians exposed to violent conflict - what may be called demand-side factors. Here, I theorize that exposure to violence suppresses civilian demand for healthcare through two mediating channels - mistrust of government institutions and fear of future violence - with adverse consequences for health outcomes, particularly child health. To test this theory empirically, I combine information from over 80,000 interviews conducted in 22 conflict-affected countries in Africa with individual- and context-level measures of exposure to violent conflict. Exposure to violence is associated with significantly lower levels of political trust and increased fear of future violence, which in turn predict lower healthcare utilization, lower immunization rates, and higher infant and child mortality. To fully address the health consequences of armed conflict, it is essential that we better understand the attitudinal and behavioral correlates of exposure to violence., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background: Historical marginalisation and ongoing trust deficits in health and government systems shape present-day vaccine perceptions among marginalised communities. This paper sought to understand the role of trust in decision-making about COVID-19 vaccine uptake in the transgender and disability communities in India., Methods: Using a participatory approach we interviewed 24 community representatives, identifying themselves as transgender individuals or as persons with disability, and 21 key informants such as vaccine programme managers, vaccine providers, and community advocates. We undertook an inductive thematic analysis of the data using a socio-ecological model., Results: Fear of side effects in relation to specific needs of the two communities and mistrust of systems involved in vaccination shaped four different pathways for vaccine decision-making. Mistrust of systems was influenced by past negative experiences with the health system, creating contexts in which information and misinformation are shared and interpreted. Participants negotiated their doubts about safety and mistrust of systems by interacting with different sources of influence showing patterns of decision-making that are dynamic, context-dependent, and intersectional., Conclusion: These findings will help in determining the content, strategies and approaches to equitable vaccine communication for these two communities. The two communities ought to be included in vaccine trials. Vaccine information must respond to the specific needs of these two communities which could be enabled by collaboration and engagement with community members and influencers. Finally, long-term investment towards the needs of marginalised communities is vital to dismantle cycles of marginalisation and distrust and in turn improve vaccine acceptance and uptake.

COVID-19 has changed the world in many ways, and while some families were divided by geographical distances and mandatory "stay-at-home" orders during lockdowns, others became fractured owing to decisions about vaccination. This novel exploratory qualitative study questions how family systems and COVID-19 attitudes influenced the vaccine decisions of 10 Australian First Nations individuals. Despite the significance of family in decision making, the advice of respected family members became insignificant when nonvaccination resulted in the undesirable consequences of coercive government mandates. The thematic analysis identifies themes of choice, repeated wrongs of the past, trust, relationships, isolation, and parenting anxiety. It also demonstrates the resiliency of First Nations families, evident in the creative ways family systems adapted during the pandemic. This study has implications for governments and health service planning toward community COVID-19 support systems in a postpandemic context and provides ideas for further research into First Nations service provision during health crises. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

There is a reciprocal relationship between trust and vocal communication in human interactions. On one hand, a predisposition towards trust is necessary for communication to be meaningful and effective. On the other hand, we use vocal cues to signal our own trustworthiness and to infer it from the speech of others. Research on trustworthiness attributions to vocal characteristics is scarce and contradictory, however, being typically based on explicit judgements which may not predict actual trust-oriented behaviour. We use a game theory paradigm to examine the influence of speaker accent and prosody on trusting behaviour towards a simulated game partner, who responds either trustworthily or untrustworthily in an investment game. We found that speaking in a non-regional standard accent increases trust, as does relatively slow articulation rate. The effect of accent persists over time, despite the accumulation of clear evidence regarding the speaker's level of trustworthiness in a negotiated interaction. Accents perceived as positive for trust can maintain this benefit even in the face of behavioural evidence of untrustworthiness., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Since 2019, live e-commerce has experienced significant growth, effectively driving consumption, with various e-commerce platforms, video platforms, enterprises, and businesses venturing into the live e-commerce sector. However, this development has brought forth several issues, one of which prominently pertains to the lack of customer loyalty. Hosts play a crucial role in live e-commerce. To investigate the impact of internet celebrity attributes on platform user loyalty, this study employed a survey questionnaire distributed on internet websites, collecting 200 valid samples. A research model based on the ABC attitude model was constructed, with customer satisfaction and customer trust as mediating variables. The findings indicate that the internet celebrity attributes of network popularity and interactivity positively influence customer loyalty through the mediation of customer satisfaction and customer trust. On the other hand, the host's purpose as an internet celebrity attribute does not directly or indirectly affect customer loyalty. The primary reason for this discrepancy is that the host failed to establish trust and employ suitable methods to attain the goal of selling and promoting products. Consequently, platforms and businesses can enhance the network popularity of hosts through communication media, while fostering their literacy and professional skills. Moreover, strengthening communication and interaction between hosts and customers serves as a foundation for nurturing enduring and positive relationships., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright: © 2024 Cui et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate individuals' perceptions of media messages about the COVID-19 pandemic and the effect of these messages on their fear and uncertainty., Methods: Data for this descriptive correlational study were collected between October and November 2020. A total of 653 individuals living in Turkey provided online survey data by completing a Personal Information Form, the Pandemic Uncertainty Scale, and the COVID-19 Pandemic Fear Scale., Results: The mean age of the participants was 52.1 ± 12.6, and 79.9% were female. It was found that 27.9% of participants "always" followed COVID-19 news in the media, and 41.3% "often" followed COVID-19-related news. Participants' COVID-19 fear (24.46 ± 8.07) and uncertainty (55.35 ± 8.63) scores were moderate and correlated., Conclusions: Level of trust in mass media was found to affect uncertainty about the pandemic. As level of trust in mass media increased, uncertainty about the pandemic decreased. Appropriate measures must be identified and adopted for effective and safe media use in situations posing massive and significant health threats such as COVID-19.

Recent high-profile incidents involving the shooting or killing of unarmed Black men have intensified the debate about how police violence affects trust in the criminal justice system, particularly among communities of color. In this article, we propose a quasi-experimental design that leverages the timing of the shooting of Jacob Blake by the Kenosha Police Department relative to when a large survey was fielded in the city of Chicago. We demonstrate that individuals interviewed 4 weeks before and 4 weeks after the shooting are comparable across a large set of observed characteristics, thus approximating an experimental setting. We find that Blake's shooting caused substantial reductions in Black respondents' trust in the police, concentrated among younger residents and criminalized residents. These results suggest that police violence against racial minorities may lead to lower civic engagement and cooperation with law enforcement in those communities, exacerbating issues of public safety and community well-being. The pronounced distrust among younger Black residents suggests a generational rift that could risk further entrenching systemic biases and inequalities within the criminal justice system. Additionally, the higher levels of distrust among criminalized respondents could have implications for research detailing this population's decreased willingness to engage with public institutions more broadly., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Ben-Menachem, Torrats-Espinosa. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Objective: This study aims to examine the impact of e-WOM on customer purchase intentions in Facebook fan pages using theories of trust, value co-creation and brand attitude. The present research has set out to explore this emerging domain of study and has thus developed & tested propositions which attempt to establish a relationship between e-WOM and customer's purchase intentions. A deeper understanding of this possible association is obtained by studying the mediating roles of Trust, Value Co-Creation, Brand Image and Brand Attitude., Methodology: The context for exploring this phenomenon is chosen to be the fan pages of smartphone brands on Facebook. The study involved conducting a sample survey of 490 respondents, comprising of both male and female, who belong to 5 smartphone brands Facebook fan pages-Samsung, Moto G, Lenovo, MI and ASUS are considered for the study. Out of which sample of 100 each has been targeted individually., Findings: The findings suggested that e-WOM significantly predicts the purchase intentions of the customers of a specific product and considerable impacted on the purchase decision. The findings of the study also reveal that customer 's trust beliefs, perceived value co-creation, brand image and brand attitude partially mediate in between relationships of e-WOM and purchase intention., Conclusion: The actual presence of different types of consumer electronics brands on the social media, more prominently, the smartphones, which undoubtedly are the most ubiquitous product of this segment. In fact, this indicates that presence on social media is a well- thought organizational strategy developed by companies to gain partial control over the customer 's decision- making process by establishing a close connect with the customers for a long period., Implication: This consequence will significantly impact the decision-making process of marketers or practitioners in relation to their marketing tactics. This research also indicates that marketers could devise more effective methods for distributing marketing content through social networking sites, while corporations can cultivate favorable electronic word-of-mouth for their products or services. Through the implementation of social media marketing strategies, companies can increase their sales volume and generate higher revenue. The study examined the role of trust, virtual community participation, and desire to purchase as mediators on smartphone brand fan sites on Facebook. It was observed that these factors had a partial influence on customer purchase intention., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Khan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Practicing family medicine is really hard; the emotional toll of sharing patients' distress, vulnerability, and trauma can build up and become overwhelming. A family physician experienced such a moment during one particularly complex morning. Feeling nearly ready to walk out of patient care, she reached out to the team nurse, who helped her get through the moment and re-engage with the waiting patients. Sharing vulnerability in the moment, and later reflecting and deciding to write about it shows the power of prioritizing teamwork in practice., (© 2024 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.)

Background: Trust is an essential phenomenon of relationship between patients and healthcare professionals and can be described as an accepted vulnerability to the power of another person over something that one cares about in virtue of goodwill toward the trustor. This characterization of interpersonal trust appears to be adequate for patients suffering from chronic illness. Trust is especially important in the context of chronic cardiovascular diseases as one of the main global health problems., Research Aim: The purpose of the qualitative study was to gain a deeper understanding of how people with chronic cardiovascular disease experience and make sense of trust in healthcare professionals., Research Design: Eleven semi-structured interviews with participants analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore in detail their lived experience of trust as a relational phenomenon., Participants and Research Context: Participants with chronic cardiovascular disease were purposively recruited from inpatients on the cardiology ward of the university hospital located in central Slovakia., Ethical Considerations: The study was approved by the faculty ethics committee. Participants gave their written informed consent., Findings Four Interrelated Group Experiential Themes: Sense of co-existence ; Belief in competence ; Will to help ; Ontological security with eight subthemes were identified. The findings describe the participants' experience with trust in healthcare professionals as a phenomenon of close co-existence, which is rooted in the participants' vulnerability and dependence on the goodwill and competence of health professionals to help with the consequence of (re)establishing a sense of ontological security in the situation of chronic illness., Conclusion: Findings will contribute to an in-depth understanding of trust as an existential dimension of human co-existence and an ethical requirement of healthcare practice, inspire patient empowerment interventions, support adherence to treatment, and person-centred care., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Missed nursing care is a global health problem that can have negative consequences for patients, nurses, and healthcare institutions. The purpose of the research is to determine the relationship of missed nursing care with patients' trust in nurses and satisfaction with care. A descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with 350 patients treated at the cardiology clinic of a university hospital. Data were collected using the MISSCARE Survey-Patient, the Trust in Nurses Scale (TNS), and the Newcastle Satisfaction with Nursing Scale (NSNS). There was a strong positive relationship between trust in nursing and satisfaction with care. Additionally, missed care in communication and basic care had a negative relationship with trust in nursing and satisfaction with care (p < 0.001). The multiple linear regression analysis revealed that the communication subscale score was the best negative predictor of trust in nurses and satisfaction with care. The results of this research indicate a deficiency in adequately addressing all nursing care activities. The failure to meet nurse-patient communication needs is the most important missed care factor that negatively affects satisfaction with care and trust in nurses., (© 2024 The Author(s). Nursing & Health Sciences published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

Biological explanations of mental disorders, which are gaining prominence, can decrease trust in psychotherapy. To rebuild trust, this experimental study tests a psychoeducational intervention targeting misconceptions that (1) psychotherapy cannot change the brain; (2) people rarely have agency over biology while psychotherapy requires agency; (3) psychosocial causes, addressed in psychotherapy, are less probable given biological causes. U.S. adults (N = 602) rated psychotherapy's effectiveness for depression before and after learning about depression's biological causes. Absent any intervention, control-condition participants rated psychotherapy to be less effective post biological-causes-information. However, participants who viewed an intervention video explaining why the misconceptions are flawed judged psychotherapy as more effective even after learning about depression's biological causes. Active-control-condition participants, who viewed a video about psychotherapy's effectiveness, without directly addressing the misconceptions, also increased psychotherapy ratings, albeit significantly less than the intervention group. Approximately four weeks later, intervention-condition participants maintained their enhanced trust, without any reminder of the video, whereas the two control conditions showed reduced trust. The study offers a practical tool for broader public use with a lasting effect., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Adolescents' supportive relationships with nonparental adults are beneficial when they are close and have trust, but few studies explore how adolescents believe closeness and trust unfold over time. I propose a method for prompting adolescents to retrospectively describe the development of abstract components of such relationships by sharing a study that used interviewee-created graphing to prompt adolescents to move from concrete parts of the relationship to abstract concepts using a tool adolescents would be familiar with from math classes. Analyses using Venn diagrams and matrices suggested adolescents conceptualized closeness and trust differently, however, this was shaped by whether the adult was a part of their family. Reflections on how the proposed graphing method can effectively be used will be discussed., (© 2024 The Authors. Journal of Research on Adolescence published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Research on Adolescence.)

A variety of evidence shows that social categorization of people based on their race can lead to stereotypical judgements and prejudicial behaviour. Here, we explore the extent to which trait judgements of faces are influenced by race. To address this issue, we measured the reliability of first impressions for own-race and other-race faces in Asian and White participants. Participants viewed pairs of faces and were asked to indicate which of the two faces was more dominant or which of the two faces was more trustworthy. We measured the consistency (or reliability) of these judgements across participants for own-race and other-races faces. We found that judgements of dominance or trustworthiness showed similar levels of reliability for own-race and other-race faces. Moreover, an item analysis showed that the judgements on individual trials were very similar across participants from different races. Next, participants made overall ratings of dominance and trustworthiness from own-race and other-race faces. Again, we found that there was no evidence for an ORE. Together, these results provide a new approach to measuring trait judgements of faces and show that in these conditions there is no ORE for the perception of dominance and trustworthiness., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

The e-commerce landscape is evolving rapidly, and businesses seek novel ways to enhance their competitive edge. In this context, understanding consumers' purchase intentions becomes crucial. Drawing from the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) theory, we propose a conceptual framework investigating the factors influencing purchase intention in e-commerce live-streaming marketing. The research adopts Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and hypothesis testing to evaluate the relationships. The findings revealed that the attributes of live streaming, including the live streamer, the product, and the field, as well as trust and impulsiveness, positively influence purchase intention. This study provides a novel perspective on live streaming e-commerce with evidence on how e-commerce live streaming drives purchase intentions, enriches the content of live streaming e-commerce literature, and explores the practical implications for marketing managers who are looking for marketing by live streaming., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors whose names are listed immediately below certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest (such as honoraria; educational grants; participation in speakers' bureaus; membership, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, or other equity interest; and expert testimony or patent-licensing arrangements), or non-financial interest (such as personal or professional relationship, affiliations, knowledge or beliefs)., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This study investigates the factors influencing the comfort level of the general public when disclosing personal information for the coronavirus disease 2019 contact tracing. This is a secondary analysis of the American Trends Panel, a national probability-based online panel of American adults, with data collected by the Pew Research Center between July 13 and 19, 2020. Grounded in privacy management theories, ordered logistic regression analyses examined three types of information disclosure: places visited, names of contacts, and location data from cell phones. Key independent variables measured trust in the stakeholders' ability to protect data and perceived risks to health and finances. The findings suggest that higher levels of trust in entities' data security capabilities can predict individuals' comfort levels when disclosing personal data. Additionally, the participants were more comfortable with noncommercial data use, especially when it was used by researchers and state and local officials. However, financial threats showed variations in sharing certain types of data. Individuals were less likely to feel at ease sharing contact tracing data as concerns about personal finances increased. Similarly, when individuals perceived threats to the U.S. economy, they were less likely to feel comfortable sharing their location data from cell phones, which might have been perceived as intrusive. Public health outreach efforts should account for individual differences and the nature of the information requested in commercial and noncommercial contexts. Future studies can enhance the explanatory capacity of data disclosure models by incorporating additional relevant contextual and environmental variables., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Internet and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can foster efficient communication and knowledge acquisition, but there are also tradeoffs in terms of risks to one's privacy. Previous research, including work with the privacy calculus framework, indicates that factors such as perceived risks and benefits of using ICTs, ICT trust, and general privacy concerns can influence individuals' digital privacy-related decisions. One pervasive psychological factor that may potentially alter such privacy-related behaviors is acute stress. Acute stress can promote risk-seeking behaviors and a tendency to prefer immediate rewards over delayed, greater value rewards. However, the effect of acute stress in the applied context of privacy decision making is relatively unknown. Participants ( N = 143) in this study were randomly assigned to either an acute stress task (socially evaluated cold pressor task) or an active control task (lukewarm water alone). Results revealed that acute stress condition increased information disclosure, as indexed by accepting more online cookies, sharing one's location more frequently, and revealing greater willingness to self-disclose personal information. In addition, the impact of individuals' levels of perceived risk and benefits, trust, and privacy concern on privacy decision making was examined. However, none of these constructs consistently influenced privacy decisions over and above the effect of stress. Overall, our findings suggest that acute stress has robust, independent influence on privacy decision making.

Introduction: The importance of improving older adults' mental health is increasing worldwide with the rapid development of the aging process. Green space is an important part of the urban built environment, demonstrates a deep connection with the mental health of older adults, and its internal mechanisms have been widely studied. This study analyzed the influence of urban green spaces on the mental health of older adults via three factors: relative deprivation, physical activity, and social trust., Methods: Based on the 2018 China Labor Dynamics Survey, a multi-level structural equation model was used to explore the mediating roles of relative deprivation, physical activity, social trust in urban green spaces, and the mental health of older adults., Results: Urban green space was positively correlated with the mental health of older adults. Relative deprivation and physical activities played a mediating role between urban green space and the mental health of older adults., Discussion: An increase in urban green spaces can help increase the number of older adults obtaining green space resources, and help them maintain good mental health. Secondly, older adults with a relatively homogeneous environment have more equal opportunities to obtain urban green space resources, which helps to reduce the comparison of older adults in access to green space resources and reduce the adverse impact of relative deprivation on their mental health. Additionally, increasing urban green spaces can encourage older adults to engage in physical activities and improve their mental health. Finally, we suggest improving the accessibility, fairness, and quality of green spaces, paying attention to the psychological needs of older adults, encouraging older adults to engage in physical activities in green spaces, and taking various measures to enhance the positive role of green space on the mental health of older adults., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Zuo, Cheng, Feng and Zhuang.)

Background: Vaccination uptake is a complex behavior, influenced by numerous factors. Behavioral science theories are commonly used to explain the psychosocial determinants of an individual's health behavior. This study examined the behavioural, cognitive, and emotional determinants of COVID-19 vaccination intention based on well-established theoretical models: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, and Behaviour (COM-B) and the Health Belief Model (HBM). Additionally, it examined the mediating role of institutional trust in the relationship between determinants of these models and vaccination intentions., Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from January to May 2022, where university students in Cyprus completed an online survey., Results: A total of 484 university students completed the online survey, with 23.8% reporting being vaccinated with fewer than three vaccination doses and/or no intention to vaccinate further. Hierarchical logistic regression analysis showed that higher scores in institutional trust, perceived severity, motivation, physical and psychological capability were significantly associated with higher odds of intending to vaccinate. Higher psychological flexibility and not being infected with COVID-19 were also associated with higher odds of vaccination intention, but not in the final model when all determinants were included. Additionally, significant indirect effects of psychological and physical capability, motivation and perceived severity on vaccination intention were found to be mediated by institutional trust., Conclusions: When tackling COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy, behavioural, cognitive, and emotional aspects should be considered. Stakeholders and policymakers are advised to implement targeted vaccination programs in young people while at the same time building trust and improving their capabilities and motivation towards getting vaccinated., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Introduction: In recent years, the concept of epistemic trust has emerged as a critical factor in understanding psychopathology, particularly within the context of personality disorders. A self-report instrument, the Epistemic Trust, Mistrust, and Credulity Questionnaire (ETMCQ), has demonstrated its validity among English and Italian adult populations. However, extending its applicability to adolescents is essential for comprehending the role of epistemic trust in the development of mental disorders. The aim of this study was to validate the ETMCQ within the Italian adolescent demographic., Methods: Data were gathered from a wide selection of middle and high schools across Italy. The data collection started on 01/03/2022 and ended on 30/06/2022. Besides the ETMCQ (Study 1 = 662 participants, 12-18 years old, M = 15.56, SD = 2.20; 324 females, 338 males), we also administered other self-report instruments measuring mentalization, emotional dysregulation, general levels of psychopathology, and interpersonal trust in a smaller groups (Study 2 = 417 participants, aged from 12-19 years old, M = 15.64; SD = 2.08; 249 females, 168 males)., Results: Our findings provide empirical validation for the theoretical framework concerning the role of epistemic trust in psychological functioning and substantiate the validity of ETMCQ as a measure to assess it among teenagers., Conclusions: The ETMCQ is a valid and promising instrument for adolescent populations; its ease and brevity of administration could make it a valuable tool both in clinical and research contexts, shedding light on the role of epistemic trust in mental health., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Milesi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

At a time when ambitious environmental management initiatives are required to protect and restore aquatic ecosystems, public trust in the science that underpins environmental policy and decision-making is waning. This decline in public trust coincides with a rise in misinformation, and threatens to undermine public support for, and participation in, environmental protection. Our study investigates the prevalence and predictors of mistrust in science associated with the protection and management of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and its catchments. Using survey data from 1,877 residents of the GBR region, we identify environmental values, perceptions, and attitudes that are associated with science mistrust. Our results include a typology of GBR science trust and scepticism. Science-sceptical respondents, representing 31% of our sample, were likely to perceive waterway management decisions as being unfair, felt less responsible, and were less motivated to contribute to improving waterway health than those with greater trust in science. Science-sceptical respondents also had differing perceptions of some threats to waterways, in particular climate change. However, similarities and 'common ground' between respondents with varying levels of trust in science included a shared recognition of the importance of waterways' ecosystem services, and a shared perception of the relative health and problems within their regions' waterways. Our findings can help to break down assumptions about science-sceptical groups in the GBR region and elsewhere. We offer recommendations to guide more constructive engagement that seeks to restore trust and build consensus on mutual goals and pathways to protect vital ecosystem functions and services., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Curnock et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Research suggests various associations between generalized trust and a wide range of economic, political, and social dimensions. Despite its importance, there is considerable debate about how best to measure generalized trust. One recent solution operationalizes generalized trust as the average of trust ratings across a small set of trust domains and human faces. Here, we investigate whether heterogeneity in facial appearance affects the psychometric properties of these new instruments. In a survey experiment conducted with a sample of U.S. adults (n = 5001), we randomly assigned respondents to one of five conditions that varied the features of human and AI-synthesized faces. Irrespective of the condition, respondents rated each face along four trust domains. We find that facial heterogeneity has negligible effects on the measurement validity and measurement equivalence of these new instruments. Small differences are observed on a subset of faces for some psychometric tests. These findings contribute to a growing body of work using faces to measure generalized trust, and demonstrate the utility of using AI-synthesized faces in social science research more broadly., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

This research investigated the relationships between school climates and bullying behaviors in Chinese adolescents, and tested the mediating effect of prosocial tendency according to the seesaw effect. School climates were operationalized using three constructs: subjective diversity of student development goals, teacher support, and peer trust. Bullying behaviors included traditional (i.e., physical, nonphysical, and relational) and cyber bullying behaviors. We recruited 538 adolescents from three schools in Beijing, China (286 girls, 252 boys; average age = 12.47) and asked them to fill out the surveys measuring school climates and prosocial tendency at the outset and to report school bullying behaviors three months later. The results showed that subjective diversity of student development goals and peer trust were directly associated with less cyber bullying behavior. Moreover, teacher support and peer trust were indirectly associated with less traditional bullying behaviors via prosocial tendency. Our findings extend the existing literature on the relationships between school climates and bullying behaviors by incorporating different types of bullying behaviors, concentrating on Chinese adolescents from a cultural viewpoint, and tapping into the underlying mechanism via revealing prosocial tendency as a mediator. Theoretical and empirical contributions of this study, as well as practical implications are discussed., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Virtues commonly associated with physicians and other healthcare professionals include empathy, respect, kindness, compassion, trustworthiness, and many more. Building upon the work of Bortolloti, Murphy-Hollies, and others, I suggest that curiosity as a virtue has an integral role to play in healthcare, namely, in helping to make those who are invisible, visible. Practicing the virtue of curiosity enables one to engage with and explore the experiences of patients and contributes toward building a physician-patient relationship of trust. As the perspectives and experiences of patients can be too often dismissed or lost within medical settings, curiosity can allow physicians to deeply know their patients, and thus provide better care. However, caution must be exercised so as to not to venture into inappropriate curiosity, where questions are asked for improper reasons or to help satisfy the personal interest of physicians. Finally, I sketch out two cases-on chronic pain and on vaccine hesitancy-to illustrate where curiosity can play a valuable role., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.)

Background: Trust remains a critical concept in healthcare provision, but little is known about the ability of health policy and interventions to stimulate more trusting relationships between communities and the health system. The CONNECT (Community Network Engagement for Essential Healthcare and COVID-19 Responses Through Trust) Initiative in Lao PDR provided an opportunity to assess the community-level impact of a trust-building community engagement approach., Methods: A mixed-method process evaluation was implemented from 10/2022-12/2023 among 14 diverse case study communities in four provinces across Lao PDR. Data collection involved two rounds of census surveys (3161 observations incl. panel data from 618 individuals) including an 8-item trust scale, 50 semi-structured interviews with villagers, and 50 contextualizing key informant interviews. The two data collection rounds were implemented before and three months after village-based CONNECT activities and helped discern impacts among activity participants, indirectly exposed villagers, and unexposed villagers in a difference-in-difference analysis., Results: Stakeholders attested strong support for the CONNECT Initiative although community-level retention of trust-related themes from the activities was limited. Quantitative data nevertheless showed that, at endline, the 8-item trust index (from [-8 to +8]) increased by 0.95 points from 4.44 to 5.39 and all trust indicators were universally higher. Difference-in-difference analysis showed that villagers exposed to the CONNECT activities had a 1.02-index-point higher trust index compared to unexposed villagers. Trust impacts improved gradually over time and were relatively more pronounced among men and ethnic minority groups., Conclusions: The CONNECT Initiative had considerable direct and systemic effects on community members' trust in their local health centers in the short term, which arose from strong stakeholder mobilization and gradual institutional learning. Relational community engagement approaches have the potential to create important synergies in health policy and broader cross-sectorial strategies, but also require contextual grounding to identify locally relevant dimensions of trust., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest We declare that no conflict of interest – financial or otherwise – exists. Please note that the authors alone are responsible for the views expressed in this article and they do not necessarily represent the views, decisions or policies of the institutions with which they are affiliated., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

This article examines the responses of three rabbis to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Israel and the distinctive approach and strategy expressed by each of them: (1) rational-scientific, (2) emotional support, (3) resistance and distrust. The first two rabbis maintain that they trust the medical institutions and the government, whereas the third rabbi evinces distrust, expressed through conspiracy theories. These different approaches can be explained by their dispositions prior to the pandemic, which were exacerbated by the Coronavirus. Hence, COVID-19 served as more of a reflecting phenomenon than an agent of change. Analyzing the dispositions of the three rabbis can show us how they are related to two significant forces of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries-science (rational-scientific and resistance and distrust) and psychology (emotional support). Psychological discourse has been used to promote public health. On the other hand, the scientific discourse has been used to promote adherence to government and health ministry directives, as well as to oppose those directives., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Risk communication is a key legal and ethical component of shared decision-making. Decisions about total knee replacement, a common surgery, must contend with the fact that a minority of cases result in unintended outcomes, some of which have devastating effects. To understand how risks are communicated during decision-making, we audio-recorded and analysed 62 consultations between surgeons and patients. Various communication methods were evident, including listing risks without elaboration, discussing them in a conversational manner, abrogating discussion of risk, or using decision-tools. Discussion of risks was often brief in nature, and risk communication was sometimes curtailed or deferred by both patients and surgeons. Risks could also be observed to play a part in reinforcing policy norms of the doctor-patient relationship that highlighted patient responsibility. Nevertheless, patients and surgeons in the observed consultations appeared more interested in developing trusting relationships than in discussing risks. Because patients had sometimes experienced considerable deterioration in their knee function before their consultation, were in pain and struggled with mobility, the realities of clinical practice clashed with the policy norms of choice and patient responsibility. Rather, decisions could appear coerced by the disease process rather than being clear-cut examples of self-determination. While policy norms putatively use risk disclosure to frame communication between patients and clinicians as a transaction between customer and technician, the lack of conformity to these norms in the consultations may indicate resistance to this framing. A greater emphasis on determining positive roles for trust and care would help policy to present a nuanced understanding of decision-making. Risk communication could be seen as a factor in the formation of trusting relationships, improving its role in decision-making processes while recognising its inherent tensions with practice., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Professional burnout in physicians is perceived as an inevitable occupational hazard inhibiting patient-focused care, the preferred approach of care, which enhances satisfaction of physicians with their work and improves clinical outcomes. Burnout jeopardizes the physical, mental, and emotional health of physicians, inhibiting high-quality care. Most individual-driven interventions and job-level interventions to reduce burnout proved inefficient or reduced burnout for only a short term. The potential of organizational processes to reduce burnout was acknowledged but is yet to be empirically tested. Drawing on social exchange theory, this study investigates the role of an organizational phenomenon, organizational trust among physicians in top management, on burnout., Methods: Data were collected across specialties in 10 out of 20 Israeli public general hospitals. The sample comprised 798 senior expert physicians. Measures were all previously published. Structural equation modeling was performed., Results: Response rates ranged from 17% to 77% across the 10 hospitals. Mean burnout was 4.7 (SD = 0.68), mean patient-focused care was 3.9 (SD = 0.79), and mean organizational trust was 3.7 (SD = 0.84). Mean burnout for women was 5.6 and for physicians from internal medicine was 5.5. The structural equation modeling supported the proposed study model, which explained 45% of burnout. Organizational trust reduced burnout by 14%., Discussion: Efforts to reduce burnout should integrate effective individual-level and job-level interventions with building trust among physicians in top management through implementing the paramount professional value of patient-focused care., Conclusions: Perceiving management, among physicians, as facilitating the value of patient-focused care led to organizational trust in top management, which was negatively associated with burnout., (© 2024 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Why do we trust each other? We carried out three experiments to test whether interpersonal trust depends on perceived self-other overlap. As previous studies suggest that enfacing (feeling ownership for, and include more into oneself of the face of) an avatar might make one trust this avatar more, we exposed participants to faces of ingroup and outgroup avatars that moved in synchrony or out of synchrony with the participant's own facial movements, and assessed the impact of synchrony on self-other overlap and trust measures. Experiment 1 used ingroup faces and successfully showed that synchrony (manipulated within-participants) increased self-other overlap and trust, which we assessed by means of the Trust Game and the Implicit Association Test (IAT). In Experiment 2, which used outgroup faces and a within-participants design, synchrony still increased scores in the Trust Game but the IAT was no longer affected. Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 2 but with synchrony varying between participants, which eliminated the synchrony effect in both trust measures. Importantly, Inclusion of Other in the Self (IOS) ratings were found to predict the IAT effect in synchronous conditions. Taken altogether, our findings suggest that interpersonal trust is mainly driven by perceived self-other overlap. Besides group identification, appearance, and voluntary movement, synchrony is just one of several sources contributing to perceived self-other overlap., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Studies have indicated that the human brain exhibits a more robust neural empathic response towards individuals of the same racial ingroup than those of the outgroup. However, the impact of the oxytocinergic system on the dynamic connectivity between brain regions involved in racial ingroup bias in empathy (RIBE) and its implications for real-life social interaction intention remains unclear. To address this gap, we employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate RIBE-modulated neural activities and the influence of the oxytocinergic system at both neural and behavioral levels. Participants homozygous for the A/A and G/G genotypes of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) rs53576 polymorphism underwent scanning while making judgments about painful versus non-painful stimuli in same-race versus other-race scenarios following either oxytocin (OT) or placebo treatment. The results revealed greater activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and anterior insula (AI) in response to same-race compared to other-race models in the G/G group but not in the A/A group. RIBE also modulated the connections between bilateral AI and the ACC, and the effect of OT on this modulatory effect was moderated by genotype rs53576 and interpersonal trust. Moreover, more extensive changes in AI-ACC connections were associated with higher levels of revenge intention in the low interpersonal trust group. Overall, our findings suggest a pivotal role of the oxytocinergic system in the RIBE-modulated neural activities and revenge intention in human interactions with the modulatory effect of interpersonal trust. This article is part of the Special Issue on "Empathic Pain"., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The Integrated Change Model describes several social and cognitive factors (e.g., health attitudes, social support, self-efficacy) that can affect medication adherence. Guided by this model, we sought to identify profiles of socio-cognitive facilitators of ART (antiretroviral therapy) adherence among diversely minoritized persons living with HIV enrolled in a behavioral intervention trial in Atlanta, Georgia (N = 477). To do this, we performed latent profile analysis on baseline responses to scales assessing 6 indicators of interest: HIV-care self-efficacy, social support, TasP (treatment-as-prevention) beliefs, trust in healthcare providers, perceived need for ART, and trust in ART. We regressed emergent profiles on internalized, enacted, and microaggressive HIV stigma and compared prospective 30-day ART adherence and several cross-sectional HIV outcomes across profiles. Mean age was 29 years; 83% of participants were non-Hispanic Black, 53% were gay/homosexual-identifying, and 12% were gender expansive. Three profiles emerged: "Constrained/Capable" (6%), featuring high self-efficacy but low-moderate provider trust, social support, TasP beliefs, ART trust, and ART need; "Conflicted" (13%), featuring high TasP beliefs, provider trust, and ART need but moderate self-efficacy, ART trust, and social support; and "Motivated" (81%), featuring high levels of all indicators. Greater internalized, enacted, and microaggressive stigma were positively associated with "Conflicted" relative to "Motivated" profile membership. ART-nonadherence, unsuppressed viral load, and viral load unawareness were more likely for the "Conflicted" relative to the "Motivated" profile. Personalized HIV care tailored to such profiles may improve ART adherence and related outcomes for minoritized persons living with HIV., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Vaccine hesitancy is considered one of the biggest global health threats. The prevalence of false information about vaccines on social media amplifies this challenge, making it more urgent. This study examines the relationship between social media use, trust in information sources, beliefs about vaccination rates, and willingness to adopt vaccines using data gathered in late 2023 from 975 respondents in South Africa. Our results suggest that people who rely on social media as their primary news source are more hesitant to get vaccinated for themselves and their children. Trust, which includes various sources including confidence in the government, is positively linked to vaccination decisions. Trust is especially important when it comes to less traditional vaccines such as COVID-19 and flu vaccines for both adults and children. We also note gender differences, with South African men showing more reluctance to get vaccinated as adults. Additionally, there is a negative correlation between social media use and the willingness of males to get vaccinated, but this relationship is not evident among females. Our research highlights the need for targeted interventions aimed at improving vaccine uptake, taking into account the links with information sources about vaccination and government trust., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are psychosocial factors acknowledged as significant contributors to health consequences later in adolescence, including psychological maladjustment. The research suggests that, at a transdiagnostic and transtheoretical level, working on restoring epistemic trust (ET), mentalized affectivity (MA), and reflective functioning (RF) in adolescents with ACEs assumes a central role in the therapeutic process. However, there are still few studies that attempted to investigate the specific role of these sociocognitive factors in the detrimental positive association between levels of experienced ACEs during childhood and psychological maladjustment in nonclinical adolescents., Methods: A community sample of 306 Italian cisgender adolescents (61.4% assigned females at birth; age range 13-19 years old; M age  = 16.1, SD = 1.64) self-reported ACEs (Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form), psychological maladjustment (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire), ET (Epistemic Trust, Mistrust and Credulity Questionnaire), MA (Brief-Mentalized Affectivity Scale for Adolescence), and RF (Reflective Functioning Questionnaire). A multiple mediation regression analysis has been performed to explore the association between ACEs and psychological maladjustment through the interaction with socio-cognitive factors., Results: ACEs are positive predictors of psychological maladjustment later in adolescence. Regardless of gender differences, epistemic mistrust and credulity, processing and expressing emotions, and uncertainty about mental states mediated this association, while epistemic trust, identifying emotions, and certainty about mental states did not configure as significant mediators., Conclusion: Findings suggest that ET disruptions and deficits in RF are risk factors, while MA is a protective factor within the link between ACEs and psychological maladjustment in adolescence. These links help to specify the role of sociocognitive factors in the development of mental problems in adolescents who have been exposed to adverse experiences in childhood., (© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Clinical Psychology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Subjective feelings of loneliness emerge due to unsatisfactory social relationships, representing a major risk for mental and physical well-being. Despite its social nature, evidence on how loneliness affects social behaviours and expectations is lacking. Using Bayesian analyses and economic games, we show in three different studies that lonelier individuals trusted their partners to a greater extent despite less favourable trustworthiness expectations, showing a greater discrepancy between their trusting behaviours and their expectations of others' trustworthiness. Such discrepancy was reversed in extravert individuals who also reported to be less lonely. These results provide evidence on two opposing effects of loneliness as a motivator for social connections and promoter of social withdrawal, and demonstrate the moderating role of personality traits. This work contributes to a better understanding of how loneliness impacts social behaviour and social expectations, with important downstream clinical implications for varying health conditions associated with heightened feelings of loneliness., (© 2024 The Author(s). British Journal of Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The British Psychological Society.)

Aim: From the perspective of doctor-patient communication, this research used multiple methods combined natural language processing (NLP), a cross-sectional survey and an online experiment to investigated how risk perception influenced people's vaccination intention., Methods: In Study 1, we used Python to crawl 335,045 comments about COVID-19 vaccine published in a social media platform Sina Weibo (equivalent of Twitter in China) from 31 December 2020 to 31 December 2021. Text analysis and sentiment analysis was used to examine how vaccination intention, as measured by linguistic features from the LIWC dictionary, changed with individuals' perceptions of pandemic risk. In Study 2, we adopted a cross-sectional questionnaire survey to further test the relation of risk perception, vaccination intention, trust in physicians, and perceived medical recommendations in a Chinese sample (n = 386). In Study 3, we conducted an online experiment where we recruited 127 participants with high trust in physicians and 127 participants with low trust, and subsequently randomly allocated them into one of three conditions: control, rational recommendation, or perceptual recommendation., Results: Text and sentiment analysis revealed that the use of negative words towards COVID-19 vaccine had a significant decrease at high (vs. low) risk perception level time (Study 1). Trust in physicians mediated the effect of risk perception on vaccination intention and this effect was reinforced for participants with low (vs. high) level of perceived medical recommendation (Study 2), especially for the rational (vs. perceptual) recommendation condition (Study 3)., Conclusion: Risk perception increased vaccination intention through the mediating effect of trust in physicians and the moderating effect of perceived medical recommendations. Rational (vs. perceptual) recommendation is more effective in increasing intention to get vaccinated in people with low trust in physicians., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Human cognitive capacities that enable flexible cooperation may have evolved in parallel with the expansion of frontoparietal cortical networks, particularly the default network. Conversely, human antisocial behavior and trait antagonism are broadly associated with reduced activity, impaired connectivity, and altered structure of the default network. Yet, behaviors like interpersonal manipulation and exploitation may require intact or even superior social cognition. Using a reinforcement learning model of decision-making on a modified trust game, we examined how individuals adjusted their cooperation rate based on a counterpart's cooperation and social reputation. We observed that learning signals in the default network updated the predicted utility of cooperation or defection and scaled with reciprocal cooperation. These signals were weaker in callous (vs. compassionate) individuals but stronger in those who were more exploitative (vs. honest and humble). Further, they accounted for associations between exploitativeness, callousness, and reciprocal cooperation. Separately, behavioral sensitivity to prior reputation was reduced in callous but not exploitative individuals and selectively scaled with responses of the medial temporal subsystem of the default network. Overall, callousness was characterized by blunted behavioral and default network sensitivity to cooperation incentives. Exploitativeness predicted heightened sensitivity to others' cooperation but not social reputation. We speculate that both compassion and exploitativeness may reflect cognitive adaptations to social living, enabled by expansion of the default network in anthropogenesis., Competing Interests: Competing interests statement:The authors declare no competing interest.

Background: In order to curb the rapid spread of COVID-19, many countries have implemented lockdown or quarantine requirements, but little is known about how this impacts suicide ideation. The purpose of this study is to examine changing trends of suicidal ideation, social trust, and social communication from the quarantine to non-quarantine period during the COVID-19 epidemic in China and the effects of quarantine on suicidal ideation., Methods: A prospective longitudinal observation design was utilized. There were six waves of interviews from the quarantine to the non-quarantine period. Two hundred and twenty-one participants completed all observation points and were included in the study. For the continuing variables, the Mann-Kendall test was used to assess changing trends across the six observation points. For categorical variables, the Cochran-Armitage test was used to examine their changing trends. A generalized estimating equation was used to examine the association between several independent variables and suicide ideation., Results: The prevalence of suicide ideation was 16.7, 14.5 %, and 14.5 %, respectively, in the quarantine period, and 13.8, 10.9 %, and 10.0 %, respectively in the non-quarantine period, which there was a significant downward trend (T: -4.06, p < 0.01) across the total observation period. Negative behavioral belief, negative social trust, and low levels of social communications were positively associated with suicide ideation, with a β of 0.0310 (P < 0.01), 0.0541 (P < 0.01), and 0.0245 (P < 0.05) respectively. The positive attitude toward lockdown was negatively associated with suicide ideation, with a β of -0.0137 (P < 0.01) among guaranteed classmates and it was -0.0121 (P < 0.01) among unguaranteed classmates., Conclusions: This study yielded new information and may have important policy implications to design effective intervention strategies to reduce future new infectious diseases while maintaining positive mental health and reducing suicide ideation., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors report no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Unmet need for health care is defined as choosing to postpone or completely avoid necessary medical treatment despite having a need for it, which can worsen current conditions or contribute to new health problems. The emerging infodemic can be a barrier that prevents people from accessing quality health information, contributing to lower levels of seeking medical care when needed., Objective: We evaluated the association between perceptions of health mis- and disinformation on social media and unmet need for health care. In addition, we evaluated mechanisms for this relationship, including frequency of social media use, medical trust, and medical care discrimination., Methods: Data from 3964 active adult social media users responding to the 2022 Health Information National Trends Survey 6 (HINTS 6), a nationally representative survey, were analyzed. The outcome was unmet need for medical care, defined as delaying or not getting the necessary medical care. The predictor variables were perception of social media health mis- and disinformation, frequency of social media use, level of trust in the health care system, and perceived racial and ethnic discrimination when receiving health care., Results: Multivariable logistic regression models indicated that perception of substantial social media health mis- and disinformation (odds ratio [OR] 1.40, 95% CI 1.07-1.82), daily use of social media (OR 1.34, 95% CI 1.01-1.79), low medical trust (OR 1.46, 95% CI 1.06-2.01), and perceived discrimination (OR 2.24, 95% CI 1.44-3.50) were significantly associated with a higher likelihood of unmet need for medical care. Unmet need among adults who did not use social media daily and who did not perceive substantial mis- and disinformation (24%; 95% CI 19%-30%) was lower compared to daily social media users who perceived substantial mis- and disinformation (38%; 95% CI 32%-43%). Adults who perceived substantial mis- and disinformation and had low trust in health care had the highest probability of reporting unmet need (43%; 95% CI 38%-49%) compared to the other three groups. Adults who perceived substantial mis- and disinformation and experienced medical care discrimination had a statistically significant higher probability of reporting unmet need (51%; 95% CI 40%-62%) compared to adults who did not experience medical care discrimination and did not perceive substantial mis- and disinformation (29%; 95% CI 26%-32%)., Conclusions: Unmet need for medical care was higher among individuals who perceived a substantial degree of social media mis- and disinformation, especially among those who used social media daily, did not trust the health care system, and experienced racial or ethnic discrimination when receiving health care. To counter the negative effects of social media mis- and disinformation on unmet need for health care, public health messaging must focus on daily social media users as well as improving trust and reducing structural racism in the health care system., (© Jim P Stimpson, Sungchul Park, Fernando A Wilson, Alexander N Ortega. Originally published in JMIR Public Health and Surveillance (https://publichealth.jmir.org).)

Impressions of trustworthiness are formed quickly from faces. To what extent are these impressions shared among observers of the same or different races? Although high consensus of trustworthiness evaluation has been consistently reported, recent studies suggested substantial individual differences. For instance, negative implicit racial bias and low contact experience towards individuals of the other race have been shown to be related to low trustworthiness judgments for other-race faces. This pre-registered study further examined the effects of implicit social bias and experience on trustworthiness judgments of other-race faces. A relatively large sample of White (N = 338) and Black (N = 299) participants completed three tasks: a trustworthiness rating task of faces, a race implicit association test, and a questionnaire of experience. Each participant rated trustworthiness of 100 White faces and 100 Black faces. We found that the overall trustworthiness ratings for other-race faces were influenced by both implicit bias and experience with individuals of the other-race. Nonetheless, when comparing to the own-race baseline ratings, high correlations were observed for the relative differences in trustworthiness ratings of other-race faces for participants with varied levels of implicit bias and experience. These results suggest differential impact of social concepts (e.g., implicit bias, experience) vs. instinct (e.g., decision of approach-vs-avoid) on trustworthiness impressions, as revealed by overall vs. relative ratings on other-race faces., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Intergroup trust is a crucial psychological foundation for promoting ethnic unity and maintaining social stability. This study explored the dynamic relationship between intergroup contact and trust among adolescents in ethnic regions of China and sought to uncover the mechanisms behind this relationship. Through a two-wave longitudinal survey of 679 adolescents, employing the Intergroup Contact Experience Scale, the Intergroup Trust Scale, and the UCLA Loneliness Scale, the study yielded several findings: (1) Over the year, a significant increase in intergroup contact was observed among the adolescents. Notably, junior high students demonstrated a marked rise in intergroup trust, whereas no significant change was discernible in high school students. (2) Cross-lagged analysis indicated that early intergroup contact significantly predicted subsequent intergroup trust and loneliness. Initial loneliness also forecasted future intergroup trust, yet early intergroup trust did not predict later intergroup contact or loneliness. (3) Loneliness served as a partial mediator in the longitudinal link between intergroup contact and trust among these adolescents. These findings reinforce the premise that in China's ethnic regions, intergroup contact is a precursor to intergroup trust, both directly enhancing trust among adolescents and indirectly by reducing loneliness., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Retrospecting the trust gaps and their dynamics during the pandemic is crucial for understanding the root causes of postpandemic challenges and offers valuable insights into preparing for future public health emergencies. The COVID-19 pandemic eroded people's trust in strangers and acquaintances, while their trust in family members remained relatively stable. This resulted in 2 trust gaps, namely, the family members-strangers trust gap and the family members-acquaintances trust gap. Widening trust gaps impede social integration and undermine the effective management of public health crises. However, little is known about how digital media use shaped trust gaps during a pandemic., Objective: This study aims to investigate the relationships between digital media use, negative emotions, the family members-strangers trust gap, and the family members-acquaintances trust gap during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. We test the mediating role of negative emotions between digital media use and 2 trust gaps and compare the indirect effect of digital media use on 2 trust gaps through negative emotions., Methods: A cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted in China between January 31, 2020, and February 9, 2020. A total of 1568 adults participated in the survey. Questions related to digital media use, negative emotions, trust in family members, trust in acquaintances, and trust in strangers during the pandemic were asked. Regression analyses were performed to test the associations between the examined variables. We used a 95% bootstrap CI approach to estimate the mediation effects., Results: Digital media use was positively associated with negative emotions (B=0.17, SE 0.03; P<.001), which in turn were positively associated with the family members-strangers trust gap (B=0.15, SE 0.03; P<.001). Likewise, digital media use was positively associated with negative emotions (B=0.17, SE 0.03; P<.001), while negative emotions were positively associated with the family members-acquaintances trust gap (B=0.08, SE 0.03; P=.01). Moreover, the indirect effect of digital media use on the family members-strangers trust gap (B=0.03, SE 0.01; 95% CI 0.01-0.04) was stronger than that on the family members-acquaintances trust gap (B=0.01, SE 0.01; 95% CI 0.003-0.027)., Conclusions: The results demonstrate that negative emotions resulting from the frequent use of digital media are a key factor that accounts for the widening trust gaps. Considering the increasing reliance on digital media, the findings indicate that the appropriate use of digital media can prevent the overamplification of negative emotions and curb the enlargement of trust gaps. This may help restore social trust and prepare for future public health crises in the postpandemic era., (©Lu Wei, Qing Huang. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 10.07.2024.)

The ChatGPT technology is increasingly becoming a part of our daily lives and is starting to be utilized in various decision-making contexts. The current study builds upon prior research, demonstrating that people's moral decision-making is influenced by ChatGPT across three perspectives, as evidenced by two studies (total n = 1925). The findings suggested that ChatGPT advice impacted decision-making similarly to expert advice, although not all decisions were susceptible to influence, particularly those based on negative emotions. Additionally, ChatGPT advice affected decisions beyond moral judgments, but no effect was observed when the advice recommended immediate low rewards. Moreover, individuals with a higher tendency for personal fear of invalidity were more likely to be influenced by both expert and AI advice, but this was not related to trust in AI., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Higher trust in healthcare providers has been linked to better health outcomes and satisfaction. Lower trust has been associated with healthcare-based discrimination., Objective: Examine associations between experiences of healthcare discrimination and patients' and caregivers of pediatric patients' trust in providers, and identify factors associated with high trust, including prior experience of healthcare-based social screening., Methods: Secondary analysis of cross-sectional study using logistic regression modeling. Sample consisted of adult patients and caregivers of pediatric patients from 11 US primary care/emergency department sites., Results: Of 1,012 participants, low/medium trust was reported by 26% identifying as non-Hispanic Black, 23% Hispanic, 18% non-Hispanic multiple/other race, and 13% non-Hispanic White ( P  = .001). Experience of any healthcare-based discrimination was reported by 32% identifying as non-Hispanic Black, 23% Hispanic, 39% non-Hispanic multiple/other race, and 26% non-Hispanic White ( P  = .012). Participants reporting low/medium trust had a mean discrimination score of 1.65/7 versus 0.57/7 for participants reporting high trust ( P  < .001). In our adjusted model, higher discrimination scores were associated with lower trust in providers (aOR 0.74, 95%CI = 0.64, 0.85). A significant interaction indicated that prior healthcare-based social screening was associated with reduced impact of discrimination on trust: as discrimination score increased, odds of high trust were greater among participants who had been screened (aOR = 1.28, 95%CI = 1.03, 1.58)., Conclusions: Patients and caregivers reporting more healthcare-based discrimination were less likely to report high provider trust. Interventions to strengthen trust need structural antiracist components. Increased rapport with patients may be a potential by-product of social screening. Further research is needed on screening and trust., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to report., (© Copyright by the American Board of Family Medicine.)

Psychosocial stress modulates social cognition and behavior in humans. One potentially mediating factor is cortisol as part of the human endocrine stress response. With a double-blind, placebo-controlled between-subject study design, we tested possible dose-dependent effects of hydrocortisone (0 mg, 5 mg and 20 mg) in 85 healthy males. During a socio-economic decision-making task we measured trust, trustworthiness, sharing, punishment, and non-social risk behavior. Social value orientation (SVO) was also assessed. We observed significantly lower levels of punishment after hydrocortisone, especially in the 20 mg group. Drug-induced salivary cortisol correlated negatively with punishment behavior. None of the other facets of social behavior or the SVO were affected by hydrocortisone. Our results suggest that hydrocortisone reduces the propensity to punish unfair behavior. Future studies are needed to further disentangle the role played by various psychobiological mechanisms within the stress response as well as their complex interplay on social behavior and cognition., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None, (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)