Negative shocks predict change in cognitive function and preferences: Assessing the negative affect and stress hypothesis in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown mitigation strategy
Francesco Bogliacino,
Cristiano Codagnone,
Felipe Montealegre (),
F. Folkvord,
Camilo Gómez Cangrejo,
Rafael Charris,
Giovanni Liva,
Francisco Lupiañez Villanueva and
Giuseppe Alessandro Prof Veltri
Additional contact information
Giuseppe Alessandro Prof Veltri: University of Trento
No qhkf9, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science
Abstract:
In the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic, households throughout the world have to cope with negative shocks, either because of the disease or the various mitigation strategies that have caused massive unemployment and financial insecurity. Previous research has shown that negative shocks impair cognitive function and change risk, time and social preferences. In this study, we analyze the results of a longitudinal multi-country survey conducted in Italy (N=1,652), Spain (N=1,660) and the United Kingdom (N=1,578). We measure cognitive function using the Cognitive Reflection Test and preferences traits using an experimentally validated set of questions to assess the differences between people exposed to a shock compared to the rest of the sample. We measure four possible types of shocks: labor market shock, health shock, occurrence of stressful events, and mental health shock. Additionally, we randomly assign participants to groups with either a recall of negative events (more specifically, a mild reinforcement of stress or of fear/anxiety), or to a control group (to recall neutral or joyful memories), in order to assess whether or not stress and negative emotions drive a change in preferences. Results show that people affected by shocks performed worse in terms of cognitive functioning, are more risk loving, and are more prone to punish others (negative reciprocity). Data do not support the hypotheses that the result is driven by stress or by negative emotions.
Date: 2020-06-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-neu
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)
Downloads: (external link)
https://osf.io/download/5ed59e4daeeb6d043b08c3f7/
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:socarx:qhkf9
DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/qhkf9
Access Statistics for this paper
More papers in SocArXiv from Center for Open Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by OSF ().