Prior and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have resulted in substantial changes to everyday life. The pandemic and measures of its control affect mental health negatively. Self-reported data from 15,375 participants from 23 countries were collected from May to August 2020 during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. Two questionnaires measuring anxiety level were used in this study—the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), and the State Anxiety Inventory (SAI). The associations between a set of social indicators on anxiety during COVID-19 (e.g., sex, age, country, live alone) were tested as well. Self-reported anxiety during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic varied across countries, with the maximum levels reported for Brazil, Canada, Italy, Iraq and the USA. Sex differences of anxiety levels during COVID-19 were also examined, and results showed women reported higher levels of anxiety compared to men. Overall, our results demonstrated that the self-reported symptoms of anxiety were higher compared to those reported in general before pandemic. We conclude that such cultural dimensions as individualism/collectivism, power distance and looseness/tightness may function as protective adaptive mechanisms against the development of anxiety disorders in a pandemic situation.

The aim of this study was to analyse the relationships between polymorphisms in four candidate genes (AR, DAT1, DRD2, and COMT) and aggression in men from a traditional society of East African pastoralists, the Datoga. Buss and Perry's Aggression Questionnaire was used to measure aggression. The number of CAG repeats in the AR gene was negatively correlated with physical aggression, anger, and hostility. Among the genes of the dopaminergic system, a significant single-gene effect was detected only for DRD2 with regard to anger. At the level of a two-gene model, a significant effect for DRD2 and a tendency for DAT1 were observed for the DAT1-DRD2 gene pair regarding hostility, and two tendencies were observed for the interaction effect of the DAT1-COMT pair regarding anger and hostility. These data suggest a probable link between physical aggression and direct fitness caused by strong sexual selection in Datoga men.