Mioara Cristea

Heriot-Watt University · Department of Psychology

The COVID-19 pandemic presents threats, such as severe disease and economic hardship, to people of different ages. These threats can also be experienced asymmetrically across age groups, which could lead to generational differences in behavioral responses to reduce the spread of the disease. We report a survey conducted across 56 societies (N = 58,...

Background Although there are increasing concerns on mental health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, no large-scale population-based studies have examined the associations of risk perception of COVID-19 with emotion and subsequent mental health. Methods : This study analysed cross-sectional and longitudinal data from the PsyCorona Survey that...

Cross-societal differences in cooperation and trust among strangers in the provision of public goods may be key to understanding how societies are managing the COVID-19 pandemic. We report a survey conducted across 41 societies between March and May 2020 (N = 34,526), and test pre-registered hypotheses about how cross-societal differences in cooper...

This paper examines whether compliance with COVID-19 mitigation measures is motivated by wanting to save lives or save the economy (or both), and which implications this carries to fight the pandemic. National representative samples were collected from 24 countries (N = 25,435). The main predictors were (1) perceived risk to contract coronavirus, (...

Background The effective implementation of government policies and measures for controlling the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic requires compliance from the public. This study aimed to examine cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of trust in government regarding COVID-19 control with the adoption of recommended health behaviou...

Psychological research on the predictors of conspiracy theorizing - explaining important social and political events or circumstances as secret plots by malevolent groups - has flourished in recent years. However, research has typically examined only a small number of predictors in one, or a small number of, national contexts. Such approaches make...

Polarization in society seems to be increasing despite modern technologies making communication more convenient than ever before. The ease of communication at scale has given rise to the phenomenon of online influencers, who have become a common feature of social media platforms. There is a complex relationship between the role of influencers, the...

The adoption of cultural variants by learners is affected by multiple factors including the prestige of the model and the value and frequency of different variants. However, little is known about what affects onward cultural transmission, or the choice of variants that models produce to pass on to new learners. This study investigated the effects o...

As the COVID-19 pandemic hit the European continent at the beginning of 2020, one of the most significant socio-economic effects that immediately become the central focus of media and governing bodies was the unemployment and the sudden transformations suffered by the job market. This effect created major concerns for citizens and governing structu...

Some public officials have expressed concern that policies mandating collective public health behaviors (e.g., national/regional "lockdown") may result in behavioral fatigue that ultimately renders such policies ineffective. Boredom, specifically, has been singled out as one potential risk factor for noncompliance. We examined whether there was emp...

Unemployment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is of the utmost importance for governing bodies worldwide. Its constant increase during the last months is subject of major concern for both citizens and policy makers, as individuals might experience increased feelings of job insecurity due to the pandemic context and to the latest developments on the...

Objectives: Self-efficacy is important for adherence to transmission-reducing behaviours (e.g., physical distancing) as also shown in the CHARIS project. We aimed to show that a theory-based short message can increase physical distancing self-efficacy and intentions to keep physical distance. Design: Structured telephone surveys with a randomly...

Xenophobia and anti-immigrant attacks rose during the COVID-19 pandemic, yet this may not be solely due to the disease threat. According to theories of frustration and scapegoating, situational obstructions and deprivation can motivate prejudice against outgroups. Using a global natural quasi-experimental design, this study tests whether the restri...

In this study, we conducted a thematic analysis of the views and perspectives of university students about online learning, specifically regarding their interpretations and experiences of the transition from traditional face-to-face courses to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample included 209 undergraduate and postgraduate stude...

Background: We examined age group differences in hedonic adaptation trajectories of positive and negative affect (PA/NA) at different arousal levels during the severe societal restrictions that governments implemented to contain the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (March to June 2020). Method: Data from 10509 participants from 33 countries and...

Anxiety associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and home confinement has been associated with adverse health behaviors, such as unhealthy eating, smoking, and drinking. However, most studies have been limited by regional sampling, which precludes the examination of behavioral consequences associated with the pandemic at a global level. Further, few s...

This study uses qualitative data to explore closely adoption and onward transmission. Interview data were collected in relation to housework regarding the perceived behaviour of participants’ parents, of themselves, and of their (grand)children (N=14). Observational data was also collected from the members of one of the families for triangulation p...

The adoption of cultural variants by learners is affected by multiple factors including the prestige of the model and the frequency and value of the different variants. However, little is known about what affects onward cultural transmission, or the choice of variants that models produce to pass on to new learners. This study investigated the effec...

The imposter phenomenon (IP, Clance 1985a) represents an illusion of personal incompetence experienced by high achievers such as academics, despite their legitimate accomplishments (Parkman in Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice 16:51–60, 2016). The present chapter explores the prevalence of IP among academics (N = 168) across different...

The present paper examines longitudinally how subjective perceptions about COVID-19, one’s community, and the government predict adherence to public health measures to reduce the spread of the virus. Using an international survey ( N = 3040), we test how infection risk perception, trust in the governmental response and communications about COVID-19...

Before vaccines for COVID-19 became available, a set of infection prevention behaviors constituted the primary means to mitigate the virus spread. Our study aimed to identify important predictors of this set of behaviors. Whereas social and health psychological theories suggest a limited set of predictors, machine learning analyses can identify cor...

Anxiety associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and home confinement has been associated with adverse health behaviors, such as unhealthy eating, smoking, and drinking. However, most studies have been limited by regional sampling, which precludes the examination of behavioral consequences associated with the pandemic at a global level. Further, few s...

Understanding the determinants of COVID-19 vaccine uptake is important to inform policy decisions and plan vaccination campaigns. The aims of this research were to: (1) explore the individual- and country-level determinants of intentions to be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, and (2) examine worldwide variation in vaccination intentions. This cross-s...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256740.].

Understanding how individual beliefs and societal values influence support for measures to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission is vital to developing and implementing effective prevention policies. Using both Just World Theory and Cultural Dimensions Theory, the present study considered how individual-level justice beliefs and country-level social valu...

Tightening social norms is thought to be adaptive for dealing with collective threat yet it may have negative consequences for increasing prejudice. The present research investigated the role of desire for cultural tightness, triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, in increasing negative attitudes towards immigrants. We used participant-level data from...

During the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. conservative politicians and the media downplayed the risk of both contracting COVID-19 and the effectiveness of recommended health behaviors. Health behavior theories suggest perceived vulnerability to a health threat and perceived effectiveness of recommended health-protective behaviors dete...

During the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. conservative politicians and the media downplayed the risk of both contracting COVID-19 and the effectiveness of recommended health behaviors. Health behavior theories suggest perceived vulnerability to a health threat and perceived effectiveness of recommended health-protective behaviors dete...

Human culture is the result of a unique cumulative evolutionary process. Despite the importance of culture for our species the social transmission mechanisms underlying this process are still not fully understood. In particular, the role of language-another unique human behaviour-in social transmission is under-explored. In this first direct, syste...

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a global health crisis. Consequently, many countries have adopted restrictive measures that caused a substantial change in society. Within this framework, it is reasonable to suppose that a sentiment of societal discontent, defined as generalized concern about the precarious state of socie...

We investigated how different social groups perceive academics using an established mixed methods approach (Cristea et al., 2020) to identify if and where there are misconceptions about the profession. We want to know whether society’s perception of academics is keeping up with academia’s evolution to ensure our teaching, research and scholarship i...

The current research examined the role of values in guiding people’s responses to COVID-19. Results from an international study involving 115 countries (N = 61,490) suggest that health and economic threats of COVID-19 evoke different values, with implications for controlling and coping with the pandemic. Specifically, health threats evoked prioriti...

We examine how social contacts and feelings of solidarity shape experiences of loneliness during the COVID-19 lockdown in early 2020. From the PsyCorona database, we obtained longitudinal data from 23 countries, collected between March and May 2020. The results demonstrated that although online contacts help to reduce feelings of loneliness, people...

Cross-societal differences in cooperation and trust among strangers in the provision of public goods may be key to understanding how societies are managing the COVID-19 pandemic. We report a survey conducted across 41 societies between March and May 2020 (N = 34,526), and test pre-registered hypotheses about how cross-societal differences in cooper...

Introduction COVID-19 has unprecedented consequences on population health, with governments worldwide issuing stringent public health directives. In the absence of a vaccine, a key way to control the pandemic is through behavioural change: people adhering to transmission-reducing behaviours (TRBs), such as physical distancing, hand washing and wear...

The Coronavirus is highly infectious and potentially deadly. In the absence of a cure or a vaccine, the infection prevention behaviors recommended by the World Health Organization constitute the only measure that is presently available to combat the pandemic. The unprecedented impact of this pandemic calls for swift identification of factors most i...

In this work, we study how social contacts and feelings of solidarity shape experiences of loneliness during the COVID-19 lockdown in early 2020. We draw on cross-national data, collected across four time points between mid-March until early May 2020. We situate our work within the public debate on these issues and discuss to what extent the public...

According to health behavior theories, perceived vulnerability to a health threat and perceived effectiveness of recommended health-protective behaviors determine motivation to follow these recommendations. Because the U.S. President Trump and U.S. conservative politicians downplayed the risk and seriousness of contracting COVID-19 and the effectiv...

The PsyCorona collaboration is a research project to examine processes involved in the COVID-19 pandemic, such as behavior that curbs virus transmission, which may implicate social norms, cooperation, and self-regulation. The study also examines psychosocial consequences of physical distancing strategies and societal lockdown, such as frustration o...

The purpose of this data visualization tool is twofold. First, it serves as a resource for researchers, analysts, and practitioners to understand people’s thoughts, feelings, and responses to the coronavirus as well as the extraordinary societal measures taken against it. Such knowledge could provide pilot data for researchers, inform current polic...

Human culture is the result of a unique cumulative evolutionary process. The social transmission mechanisms underlying this process are still not fully understood. In particular, the role of language, another unique human behaviour, in social transmission is under-explored. In this first direct, systematic comparison of demonstration vs language-ba...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has unprecedented consequences on population health, with governments worldwide issuing public health directives which have major impacts on normal living. In the absence of a vaccine, a key way to control the pandemic is through behavioural change: people adhering to transmission-reducing behaviours (TRBs), such as...

Mapping the Moods of COVID-19: Global Study Uses Data Visualization to Track Psychological Responses, Identify Targets for Intervention

This paper examines whether compliance with COVID-19 mitigation measures is motivated by wanting to save lives or save the economy (or both), and which implications this carries to fight the pandemic. National representative samples were collected from 24 countries (N=25,435). The main predictors were (i) perceived risk to contract coronavirus, (ii...

Previous studies suggested that public trust in government is vital for implementations of social policies that rely on public's behavioural responses. This study examined associations of trust in government regarding COVID-19 control with recommended health behaviours and prosocial behaviours. Data from an international survey with representative...

Previous studies suggested that public trust in government is vital for implementations of social policies that rely on public's behavioural responses. This study examined associations of trust in government regarding COVID-19 control with recommended health behaviours and prosocial behaviours. Data from an international survey with representative...

The general aim of this research was to investigate the use of the Basic Cognitive Schemes (BCS) model in examining the qualitative vs. quantitative centrality of a social representation’s (SR) core elements. Firstly, we examined the internal structure of the social representation of the European integration (Study 1, N = 71) according to Central C...

Does kindness always pay? The influence of recipient affection and generosity on young children's allocation decisions in a resource distribution task. Abstract The aim of the current study was to determine whether the level of generosity shown by 3-to 8-year-old children (N = 136; M age = 69 months) in a resource distribution task would vary accor...

Background: An ageing global population will bring a significant increase in the prevalence of dementia, with the need for a collaborative international effort to combat this public health challenge being increasingly recognised. To be successful, this cooperation must be sensitive to the different cultural environments in which dementia is positio...

Background An ageing global population will bring a significant increase in the prevalence of dementia, with the need for a collaborative international effort to combat this public health challenge being increasingly recognised. To be successful, this cooperation must be sensitive to the different cultural environments in which dementia is position...

An exploratory study was carried out to compare, with the same social objective, the results obtained by two different approaches to the study of social representations, particularly in their conception of consensus: the structural approach and that of organizing principles. The social representation of Facebook was studied with these two approache...

The theory of planned behavior (TPB, Ajzen, 1985) has proved its efficiency in predicting different behaviors among road users (Sheeran & Orbell, 2000). The present study examined the TPB factors explaining risk taking among vulnerable road users (e.g., cyclists). We presumed that attitude, social norms, and perceived behavioral control (PBC) would...

Introduction: This study investigated the relation between co-presence and bicyclists' riding behavior. We assumed that the presence of peer riders would either facilitate or inhibit risky behaviors depending on bicyclists' perceptions of three traffic contexts conducive to risk taking (i.e., red-light, go straight, and turn to left). Method: Young...

When variable message signs (VMS) or on-board traffic information systems are used, it is essential that while driving, motorists read and understand the information as soon as possible in order to make appropriate decisions to increase road safety and/or facilitate traffic flow. Thus, it is important to investigate the factors that may increase fa...

The theory of planned behavior (TPB) has been successfully predicting behavior with a small number of factors. Nonetheless, to increase its predictive power we introduced several behavioral options and additional factors in the same prediction model about drivers’ self-reported speed behavior on a road with a speed limit of 90 km/h. We investigated...

Introduction. - Speeding represents one of the main causes of road crashes worldwide, particularly among young drivers who are over-represented in road-crash statistics. For promoting road safety in France, an automatic speed enforcement (ASE) system was introduced late 2002. Objective. - In order to examine its efficiency on speeding and its motiv...

Eco-driving allows the driver to optimize his/her behaviour in order to achieve several types of benefits: reducing pollution emissions, increasing road safety, and fuel saving. One of the main rules for adopting eco-driving is to anticipate the traffic events by avoiding strong acceleration or braking and maintaining a steady speed when possible....

This study explores the social representations of cloning taking in consideration a series of associated emotions and the subjects' level of religiosity. The participants in our study consisted of 356 subjects of different ages and professions. The data collection included four tasks for the subjects to fill in. First, they had to fill in a free ta...

Problem statement: Sports and movement activities play an important role in the harmonious development of children; Special attention should be paid to the factors influencing their involvement in sportive activities. The aim of this study was related to identifying possible psychosocial correlates of the need for physical education and sports in R...

The main objective of this study was investigating burnout syndrome among teachers and its correlations with coping strategies. The participants, (N¼112) were teachers in the preuniversity educational system and had to fill in two tasks: a) Emotional burnout Questionnaire (Zaharia, 2007) and Coping styles Scale (Lazarus & Folkman 1986). Data analys...

There are few published articles analyzing the school dropout and offering a broad imagine of the phenomenon. Most of these studies are focused on testing concrete programs of intervention or on meta-analyzing the efficiency of several programs applied to students with a high risk of dropout. The article above may be framed in a sériés of scientifi...

The primary aim of our study was to seek out if the taxonomy of embarrassment antecedents and associated qualitative data analysis grid proposed by Rowland Miller (1992; 1996) is valid considering Romanian data. For achieving this, Romanian teens (N=138) were asked to recall the last moment they experienced embarrassment. The 24 entry grid proposed...