Journal article
A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Abstract:
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The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about a situation. Participants from 87 countries and regions (n = 21,644) were randomly assigned to one of two brief reappraisal interventions (reconstrual or repurposing) or one of two control conditions (active or passive). Results revealed that both reappraisal interventions (vesus both control conditions) consistently reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions across different measures. Reconstrual and repurposing interventions had similar effects. Importantly, planned exploratory analyses indicated that reappraisal interventions did not reduce intentions to practice preventive health behaviours. The findings demonstrate the viability of creating scalable, low-cost interventions for use around the world.
Protocol registration
The stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on 12 May 2020. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4878591.v1
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
-
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(Preview, Supplementary materials, 1.9MB, Terms of use)
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(Preview, Accepted manuscript, 985.9KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1038/s41562-021-01173-x
Authors
- Publisher:
- Springer Nature
- Journal:
- Nature Human Behaviour More from this journal
- Volume:
- 5
- Issue:
- 8
- Pages:
- 1089–1110
- Publication date:
- 2021-08-02
- Acceptance date:
- 2020-06-28
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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2397-3374
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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1114740
- Local pid:
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pubs:1114740
- Deposit date:
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2020-06-25
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Wang et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2021
- Rights statement:
- Copyright © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
- Notes:
- This is the accepted manuscript version of the article. The final version is available online from Springer Nature at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01173-x
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