Worrying about the Consequences of COVID-19 for Distant Others Relates to Mitigative Actions

Figures & data

Figure 1. Proposed model through which i) worry about oneself and close others, and ii) worry about distant others may translate into mitigative actions, such as social-distancing, self-quarantining and support for policies to mitigate COVID-19.

Figure 2. Feelings of worry about consequences for different group in the United States (left) and Netherlands (right). Error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals around the mean, different superscripts indicate significant within-subject differences on worry ratings (all ps < .01).

Table 1. Bivariate correlations between worry about self and close others, worry about distant others, personal norms, social distancing, health behaviors and policy support. Coefficient above the diagonal are for the sample of United States citizens, coefficients below the diagonal are for the sample of Dutch citizens.

	1.	2.	3.	4.	5.	6.
1. Worry self and close others	–	.43	.44	.34	.14	.18
2. Worry distant others	.51	–	.60	.55	.52	.54
3. Personal norms	.30	.40	–	.62	.49	.52
4. Social-distancing	.15	.28	.46	–	.66	.55
5. Health behaviors	.28	.29	.39	.46	–	.62
6. Policy support	.29	.33	.43	.38	.39	–

All correlation coefficients were significant with ps ≤ .018.

Table 2. Regression coefficients for the predictors worry about self and close others and worry about distant others with the outcome variables personal norms (mediator), social distancing, health behaviors (i.e., self-quarantining and hygiene practices) and policy support.

	Personal Norm			Social distancing			Health behaviors			Policy support
		95%CI			95%CI			95%CI			95%CI
	β	LB	UB	β	LB	UB	β	LB	UB	β	LB	UB
The United States
Worry about self and close others	.23	.13	.33	.13	.02	.23	−.10	−.21	.01	−.06	−.17	.04
Worry about distant others	.50	.40	.60	.49	.39	.60	.56	.45	.67	.57	.46	.68
	F(2,290) = 96.38 R^2 = .40			F(2,290) = 66.47 R^2 = .31			F(2,290) = 54.73 R^2 = .27			F(2,290) = 60.93 R^2 = .30
The Netherlands
Worry about self and close others	.13	.01	.24	.01	−.11	.14	.18	.06	.30	.17	.05	.29
Worry about distant others	.34	.26	.49	.28	.15	.40	.20	.08	.32	.24	.12	.36
	F(2,312) = 32.90 R^2 = .17			F(2,312) = 13.55 R^2 = .08			F(2,312) = 18.87 R^2 = .11			F(2,312) = 23.38 R^2 = .13

95%CI stands for 95% confidence interval around β, and LB and UB stand for Lower and Upper bound respectively. Variance inflation factor was 1.23 in the United States and 1.34 in the Netherlands.

Table 3. Regression coefficients for the predictors worry about self and close others and worry about distant others with the outcome variables personal norms, social distancing, health behaviors (i.e., self-quarantining and hygiene practices) and policy support.

	Social distancing			Health Behaviors			Policy support
		95%CI			95%CI			95%CI
	β	LB	UB	β	LB	UB	β	LB	UB
The United States
Personal norm ($\hat{\beta }$3)	.45	.33	.56	.34	.22	.46	.35	.23	.47
Worry about self and close others ($\hat{\beta }$4)	.03	−.07	.13	−.18	−.29	−.07	−.14	−.25	−.04
Worry about distant others ($\hat{\beta }$5)	.27	.16	.38	.39	.27	.51	.39	.27	.51
	F(3,289) = 73.66 R^2 = .43			F(3,289) = 50.65 R^2 = .34			F(3,289) = 56.68 R^2 = .37
The Netherlands
Personal norm ($\hat{\beta }$3)	.42	.31	.52	.31	.20	.43	.34	.23	.44
Worry about self and close others ($\hat{\beta }$4)	−.04	−.15	.07	.14	.02	.26	.13	.01	.24
Worry about distant others ($\hat{\beta }$5)	.14	.02	.25	.09	−.03	.21	.13	.01	.25
	F(3,311) = 29.79 R^2 = .22			F(3,311) = 24.28 R^2 = .19			F(3,311) = 29.76 R^2 = .22

95%CI stands for 95% confidence interval around β, and LB and UB stand for Lower and Upper bound respectively. Variance inflation factors for personal norms, worry about self and close ones, and worry about distant others were respectively 1.66, 1.31 and 1.64, in the United States, and 1.21, 1.36 and 1.48 in the Netherlands.

Table 4. Regression coefficients for the predictors worry about self and close others and worry about distant others with the outcome variables personal norms (mediator), social distancing, health behaviors (i.e., self-quarantining and hygiene practices) and policy support.

	The United States			The Netherlands
		95%CI			95%CI
	β	LB	UB	β	LB	UB
Worry about self and close others	.04	−.09	.16	−.18	−.30	−.05
Worry about distant others	−.06	−.19	.06	.10	−.03	.22
	F(2,290) = 0.51 R^2 < .01			F(2,314) = 3.68 R^2 = .02

95%CI stands for 95% confidence interval around β, and LB and UB stand for Lower and Upper bound respectively. Variance inflation factor was 1.23 in the United States and 1.34 in the Netherlands.

Data availability

Data and analyses presented in this manuscript are available at https://osf.io/am6ew/