Table 2.
Indirect effects of individual difference variables on testing positive for COVID-19 via COVID-specific variables.
| COVID knowledge | Threat (not) exaggerated | Perceived COVID risk | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standardized beta (A1) | Indirect effect (A1*B1) | Standardized beta (A2) | Indirect effect (A2*B2) | Standardized beta (A3) | Indirect effect (A3*B3) | |
| Beliefs about the source | ||||||
| Trust in scientists | 0.581*** | − 0.379† | 0.552*** | − 0.116 | 0.059 | 0.058 |
| Trust President Trump re COVID-19 crisis | − 0.486*** | 0.413† | − 0.538*** | 0.173 | − 0.117** | − 0.112† |
| Confidence in federal gov’t effectiveness | − 0.367*** | 0.236† | − 0.340*** | 0.061 | − 0.059 | − 0.058 |
| General confidence in President Trump | − 0.460*** | 0.410† | − 0.536*** | 0.206 | − 0.128** | − 0.126† |
| Other receptivity-related characteristics | ||||||
| General interpersonal compassion | 0.196*** | − 0.163† | 0.219*** | − 0.015 | 0.074 | 0.013 |
| Disgust sensitivity | − 0.320*** | 0.306† | 0.082 | 0.001 | 0.271*** | 0.321† |
| Perceived vulnerability to disease | 0.030 | − 0.028 | 0.196*** | 0.002 | 0.419*** | 0.464† |
| Preexisting conditions | − 0.203*** | 0.165† | 0.051* | − 0.010 | 0.364*** | 0.287† |
| Political ideology (higher, more conservative) | − 0.263*** | 0.224† | − 0.413*** | 0.087 | − 0.135*** | − 0.106† |
| Belief in conspiracy theories | − 0.509*** | 0.353† | 0.265*** | 0.127 | 0.102* | 0.102† |
| Science literacya | 0.434*** | − 0.310 | − 0.159** | − 0.073 | − 0.121* | − 0.212 |
| Fox Newsb | − 0.273*** | 0.284† | − 0.364*** | 0.114 | − 0.030 | − 0.028 |
| NPRb | 0.352*** | − 0.348† | 0.350*** | − 0.106 | 0.138** | 0.134† |
| Papers, magazinesb | 0.213*** | − 0.218† | 0.210*** | − 0.061 | 0.089* | 0.083† |
| Other target characteristics | ||||||
| Age | 0.073*** | − 0.051† | − 0.006 | 0.002 | − 0.025 | − 0.022 |
| Gender (1 = male/0 = female) | − 0.246*** | 0.198† | − 0.207*** | 0.036 | − 0.125** | − 0.102† |
| Race (1 = Black/0 = white) | − 1.052*** | 0.916† | 0.069 | 0.010 | 0.355*** | 0.247† |
a Statistics for this variable should be interpreted cautiously as the bootstrapped mediational model failed to converge, presumably due to the small number of positive test cases (5 out of 304).
b Coded 0 = neither watch last week, nor primary news source, 1 = watched last week or primary, 2 = both.
*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.
† Denotes a 95% bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval (using 10,000 bootstrap samples) that does not include zero.