Providing Support During the COVID-19 Pandemic for Surveys to Track Mindsets and Their Impact in the Crisis, United States, 2020

The aim of this study was to capture the longitudinal/cultural patterning and causal effects of four core mindsets that were expected to shape social, psychological, and physiological outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic: a) mindsets about the capability of the body to fight off or recover from COVID-19 (Is my body capable or incapable of handling a disease like COVID-19?); b) mindsets about the social impact of individual health (How do my actions influence the health of others? Will improvements/declines in my personal health affect my family, my neighborhood, my country, the world?); c) mindsets about the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic (Is the pandemic a catastrophe, manageable, or an opportunity?); and d) mindsets about the nature of stress (Is stress enhancing or debilitating?). The research team aimed to explore these topics by (a) conducting a series of surveys to track mindsets and their causes and consequences for health as they change over time, (b) designing and disseminating interventions to shape more adaptive mindsets; and (c) collecting physiological measures of stress and immune functioning, a key mechanism linking mindsets with physical, mental, and social health.

The research team collected a baseline sample during the first 10 days of the pandemic (starting the day the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic: Wednesday March 11, 2020) and then tracked the sample longitudinally until March 28, 2022.  Geography is to the state level.