Mediating Role Of Fatalism On The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence And Psychological Reactance In A Health Crisis Context (Covid-19).

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue II, February 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186

Mediating Role Of Fatalism On The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence And Psychological Reactance In A Health Crisis Context (Covid-19).

Hélène Chantal Ngah Essomba, Tachom Waffo Boris, Soh Gustave, Tagne Nossi Alain
Department of psychology, University of Yaoundé

ABSTRACT
The messages on barrier gestures to COVID-19 rather seem to produce reactance. This study aimed the mediating effect of fatalism on the relationship between emotional intelligence and psychological reactance to COVID-19 barrier messages. Data were collected from 232 participants using a composite questionnaire containing the emotional intelligence, psychological reactance and fatalism scales. The simple mediation model were used for data processing because it fit with three variable mediational study design. The results showed that fatalism mediates the relationship between emotional intelligence and psychological reactance vis-à-vis messages on barrier gestures to COVID-19. Emotional intelligence inhibits fatalistic beliefs and eliminates psychological reactance. In the health crisis context it is important to take socio-emotional variables into account when designing awareness campaigns inviting individuals to adopt preventive behaviors, especially when those represent the main means of eradicating the pandemic. More implications of these results, as well as future perspectives were discussed.

Keywords— COVID-19; barrier gestures; psychological reactance; emotional intelligence; fatalistic beliefs.

1. INTRODUCTION

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory and infectious disease identified in December 2019 in the city of Wuhan in China. Today it is present on all continents and in almost all countries of the world. As of January 22nd, 2022, 340,543,962 people worldwide had already tested positive for COVID-19 and a total of 5,570,163 deaths had been recorded (World Health Organization [WHO], 2022; www.who.int/). So far, the scientific community has struggled to develop an effective protocol to overcome this pandemic. COVID-19 has therefore emerged as the major health concern at the moment. It has several types of economic, social and even psychological consequences. In terms of psychological consequences, individuals who contracted or not COVID-19 experience dysfunctional emotions such as anger, nervousness, worry, fear, anxiety of being infected or dying (Brooks et al., 2020; Lima et al., 2020). Those emotional effects also tend to lead cognitive effects by directing individuals’ discourse towards natural/supernatural attributions (Messanga, 2012).
The main cause of the COVID-19 rapid spread is behaviors adopted by individuals (WHO, 2020; www.who.int/); it appears that its eradication depends largely on non-pharmaceutical interventions ([i.e. political decisions and individual behaviors]; Ferguson et al., 2020). However, previous experience with similar pandemics shows that non-pharmaceutical action that involves free choices leads to more conflict when it involves political force (The Hastings Center, 2020). To this end, individual behaviors such as washing hands regularly, avoiding social contact, self-confinement, etc. remain the most adequate way to reduce the spread of the new coronavirus. Organizations and governments have therefore undertaken communication campaigns to raise awareness of those behaviors. Unfortunately, it seems individuals are reluctant and even opposed to engaging in such behaviors as the number of infected and dead is increasing day by day (WHO, 2020; www.who.int/). To account for this boomerang effect, psychological reactance is very often highlighted (Reynolds-Tylus, 2019).
Psychological reactance is an aversive motivational state that appears when an individual’s freedom is eliminated or threatened (Brehm & Brehm, 1981). That motivational force is intended to allow the individual to regain his freedom, even if it is not accompanied by a beneficial effect on his health. Psychological reactance theory defines freedom as an individual’s belief in their ability to engage in behavior, to decide when and how to engage in that behavior (Niesta Kayser et al., 2016). Thus, reactance is stimulated when a message such as that on barrier gestures, prohibits a specific behavior, asks an individual to abandon a desired goal or contains a perceived threat. It will manifest itself in an attempt to restore autonomy, which results in the desire to engage in the prohibited behavior, a refusal to adopt prescribed health behaviors, or an aggressiveness towards the message source (Bessarabova & Massey, 2019; Dhanya & Pricilda Jaidev, 2018). Psychological reactance is therefore reactive and not proactive. It is a mixture of negative emotions and cognitions (Dillard & Shen, 2005), which precede perception of a threatened freedom and lead to health communications resistance.

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