How anxiety predicts interpersonal curiosity during the COVID-19 pandemic: The mediation effect of interpersonal distancing and autistic tendency

Qi Huang; Siqi Cao; Shengkang Zhou; Diksha Punia; Xiangru Zhu; Yuejia Luo; Haiyan Wu

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2021.110973

How anxiety predicts interpersonal curiosity during the COVID-19 pandemic: The mediation effect of interpersonal distancing and autistic tendency

Pers Individ Dif. 2021 Oct:180:110973. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2021.110973. Epub 2021 May 18.

Authors

Qi Huang^{1

2

3}, Siqi Cao^{4

5}, Shengkang Zhou⁶, Diksha Punia⁷, Xiangru Zhu³, Yuejia Luo^{2

8}, Haiyan Wu¹

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Cognitive and Brain Sciences and Department of Psychology, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau SAR, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
³ Institute of Cognition, Brain and Health, Henan University, Kaifeng, China.
⁴ CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, China.
⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁶ Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
⁷ University of California, Irvine, USA.
⁸ College of Teacher Education, Qilu Normal University, Jinan China.

Abstract

With the worldwide implementation of quarantine regulations to suppress the spread of the COVID-19, anxiety, interpersonal distancing and autistic tendency may decrease individuals' desire to seek interpersonal information and thus might have negative effects on their interpersonal curiosity. Through behavioral paradigms and scales, two studies were conducted (Study 1: n = 570; Study 2: n = 501). We explored the predictive effect of anxiety on interpersonal curiosity in situations when mandatory isolation measures have led to dramatic changes in interpersonal distancing and autistic tendency. We found that interpersonal distancing and autistic tendency negatively predicted interpersonal curiosity, and these predictive effects suppressed the positive prediction of state anxiety to interpersonal curiosity. Our research provides insights into the relationships among anxiety, curiosity, interpersonal distancing, and autistic tendency during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: Anxiety; Autistic tendency; COVID-19; Curiosity; Interpersonal distancing; Quarantine.