For the government, actions or measures should be considered with fairness, because the results implied that individuals regarding fairness as important morality responded with lower evaluation on sufficiency of medical cares and disclosed information, as well as measures of the government. To ensure the data quality, we excluded these abnormal data based on quite serious criteria. Concerns and behavior (Q3) and mental status (Q4) were assigned as dependent variables. We are updating this collection on an ongoing basis. This article provides an overview of factors elicited in response to COVID-19 and their impact on immunity, physical health, mental health and well-being. and you may need to create a new Wiley Online Library account. Throughout the outbreak, such theories were deliberately nourished by politicians, media, and even the scientific community, and, as our research suggests, their consequences were likely disastrous. In contrast, the government should encourage liberal people to encounter the crisis. Future research may, therefore, profitably test for potential confounders of the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and health‐related behaviors (e.g. They do not satisfy the third necessary condition, that is, exclusion of alternative causes, unless all possible confounders are accounted for in the analysis (see, for example, Pearl, 2014), which is rarely possible. Investigation, Conspiracy beliefs affect people's actions in part because they increase feelings of powerlessness that translate into disengaged behaviors (Jolley & Douglas, 2014a, 2014b). One unexpected finding was that conspiracy beliefs decreased over the course of the outbreak. In response, the Japanese government declared a state of emergency on 7th April in seven prefectures. Age had a significant positive effect on epidemic consciousness (F (1, 1854) = 39.152, p < .001; R2 = .021, β = .144), material sufficiency (F (1, 1854) = 11.181, p = .001; R2 = .006, β = .077), and confidence in doctors (F (1, 1854) = 14.249, p < .001; R2 = .008, β = .087). Results are informative and contributive to the governance and management of, and aid for, individual responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Conspiracy theories, defined as explanatory beliefs about a group of actors that collude in secret to reach malevolent goals (Bale, 2007; Van Prooijen & Douglas, 2018), tend to gain momentum during societal crises such as natural disasters, war or pandemics (Van Prooijen & Douglas, 2017, 2018; also see Van Bavel et al., 2020). Education, Training, and Distance Learning Adaptability to a sudden transition to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: Understanding the challenges for students Published in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology. After confirming reliability, the mean response values for each subscale were calculated (BFS = extraversion, neuroticism, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness; DASS = stress, anxiety, and depression; and MFQ = harm (avoiding harm), fairness, ingroup loyalty, authority (respect for authority), and purity. All respondents joined the survey online using Internet browsers installed in their devices, such as computers, tablets, and smartphones. On the same day, seven prefectural divisions in Japan, namely, Tokyo, Osaka, Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama, Hyogo, and Fukuoka, entered a state of emergency. The present study also clarified that high evaluation of the measures suggested by the government and the general public approach, sufficient material supplies, positive health status, and likelihood of survival were found as factors that relieve stress, anxiety, or depression. pclose < .05). Table S4. In light of previous research and given the unprecedented scope and spread of conspiracy theories about COVID‐19, there is reason to believe that their negative societal impact may be severe. All respondents completed the questionnaires, out of which data from 377 respondents were excluded after screening for non-normal respondents (26 wrong answers to attention check questions, 87 invalid postcodes, and 264 unvaried responses to all questions in at least one of the same questionnaire page). Table S3. The scale consisted of the following items: “I avoid in‐person contact with others”; “I avoid attending social gatherings in person”; and “I try to keep a safe distance from others”. In contrast, the most prevalent COVID‐19 conspiracy theories, such as the accidental leakage or biological warfare theories, do not directly imply that taking preventive measures is unnecessary or harmful. This model achieved close fit for social distancing and was retained. Third, to gather complementary insights, we estimated cross‐lagged panel models including T1 through T5 conspiracy beliefs and social distancing scores (Finkel, 1995; Selig & Preacher, 2009). Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. We observed three correlations between slopes and intercepts. Endorsing conspiracy beliefs at an earlier wave consistently predicted lower levels of social distancing at a later wave. In all cases, we accounted for non‐normal distributions of the three variables (all Kolmogorov‐Smirnov ps < .001) using robust maximum likelihood (MLR) estimation with Yuan‐Bentler scaled χ2 test statistics and Huber‐White robust standard errors. The Japanese version of the Big-Five scale (BFS; [32]), one of the most reliable and popular scales for personality traits in Japan [33], was used for the scales of personality traits. Concerning personality, the results revealed that neuroticism induced stress, anxiety, depression, dissatisfaction with material goods, medical care, disclosed information, distrust of the other people including doctors, and negative consideration of individual health status and survival. If you do not receive an email within 10 minutes, your email address may not be registered, In total, 399 participants (99%)11 Please note that although an initial sample of 403 participants were contacted at T1, due to a technical issue, responses for four participants were missing at T1. The participants were requested to select their answer for each item using a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from “7 = totally describes me” to “1 = does not describe me at all”. Maintaining effective communication with partners may thus be a means to share correct information and promote appropriate behaviors. Malm et al. Here, we provide such an investigation with data collected at five timepoints over the 6 crucial weeks of the early COVID‐19 outbreak in the US—a time in which strict adherence to social distancing measures in retrospect could have saved many lives. 105, No. The Journal of Applied Psychology® emphasizes the publication of original investigations that contribute new knowledge and understanding to fields of applied psychology (other than clinical and applied experimental or human factors, which are more appropriate for other APA journals). The authors thank Hitomi Nagao, Saki Funamoto and Ai Nagahama for helping process the statistical spreadsheet. No, Is the Subject Area "Human families" applicable to this article? The model held and the size of effects did not change significantly (see SOM, Table S4, for details). In contrast, married people obtained higher scores in epidemic consciousness, preventive behavior, material sufficiency, health status, and concerns about family and children. 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. Half of the respondents were residents of the prefectures where a state of emergency has been declared (total = 49.9%; Tokyo = 11.4%, Osaka = 9%, Kanagawa = 8.8%, Saitama = 7.1%, Hyogo = 5%, Fukuoka = 4.5%, and Chiba = 4.1%). Data collection took place in 2020 on 16 March for T1, on 23 March for T2, on 30 March for T3, on 6 April for T4, and on 20 April for T5. Multiple comparisons based on Tukey’s method were conducted for three variables, namely, parental status, household size, and employment status. While all lagged effects were weak, please note that these estimates reflect the strength of prediction over a very short lag (1–2 weeks) and are highly conservative because of the equality constraint across all waves.