The COVID-19 pandemic illustrated that intolerance of uncertainty (IU) can hinder problem-solving and lead to avoidance of ambiguous situations. Furthermore, people tend to lack confidence in decisions made in ambiguous contexts. We wanted to investigate the impact of IU on intentions to get vaccinated, to vaccinate one’s children, and to recommend the vaccine in situations with varying degrees of perceived uncertainty. We first conducted a pretest to select six scenarios with different levels of perceived uncertainty. In the core study, 485 participants answered for each of the six scenarios whether they would get vaccinated, vaccinate their children (or imagine doing so, for individuals without children), and whether they would recommend the vaccine. They also completed the IUS-12 (Intolerance of Uncertainty scale) and the VAX (Vaccination Attitudes Examination). Results showed that perceived uncertainty did not influence our measures, but the IUS-12 and VAX predicted the difference in score between the most and least uncertain scenarios. An indirect effect of the IUS-12 on decision confidence through the VAX was found, but with no direct effect. We conclude that, even if future studies should refine these results, Public Policies should be more focused on factors such as IU and attitudes toward vaccination.

Mistrust in COVID-19 vaccines may hinder vaccination campaigns. We looked at cognitive determinants of vaccination intentions against COVID-19. We were interested in (i) the effects of stress and (ii) the effects of self-protection systems on attitudes and intentions to get COVID-19 vaccines. We conducted an online observational pilot study with 203 participants and used self-report questionnaires to assess perceived stress and vulnerability to disease, beliefs about a dangerous world, pandemic-related stressors, living conditions, attitudes and intentions toward the vaccines and trust in government management of the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants reporting high levels of trust in government and high levels of stress were more likely to have positive attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines, although these two effects are at least partially independent of each other. We discuss how to improve the communication around COVID-19 vaccine policies.

Face aux problématiques persistantes d’insertion professionnelle en France, de nombreux dispositifs ont été mis en place. Ces dispositifs reposent notamment de plus en plus sur des outils numériques, malheureusement encore trop peu nombreux. Parmi eux, l’outil Diagoriente s’impose comme un outil novateur et complet, permettant de faire le point sur les compétences transversales et d’identifier des pistes concrètes d’immersion et de formation professionnelle. Nous avons mené 117 entretiens avec des personnes éloignées de l’emploi afin de mieux comprendre les bénéfices de l’outil pour ce public, et la manière dont il se différencie des autres outils de sa catégorie. L’identification des points forts de l’outil a permis de dresser une liste de bonnes pratiques pouvant optimiser les effets bénéfiques des dispositifs et outils d’aide à l’insertion professionnelle.

Literature shows that intolerance of uncertainty can negatively affect health professionals' medical decision-making process. However, there is no intolerance of uncertainty measurement tools in French, so this study aimed at validating the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale-12 (IUS-12) in French, and a version of the IUS-12 adapted for healthcare professionals (IUS-12-H). We asked health professionals to complete our two scales of interest, as well as several scales covering related constructs. Five hundred and sixteen health professionals completed French versions of the IUS-12 and the IUS-12-H, and our additional scales. Exploratory factor analyses showed that the IUS-12 and IUS-12-H scales had a two-factor structure as in the seminal article of Carleton et al. (2007). The IUS-12 and the IUS-11-H French versions show psychometric properties comparable to the original version indicating that they can be used as the seminal scales for French health professionals.

The medical environment is prone to diagnostic errors, which can have serious consequences for patients' health status. However, healthcare professionals (HCPs) are often overconfident in their choices. In this context, there is a growing interest in the influence of variables that may negatively influence the reasoning of HCPs, namely intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and resource consumption. We challenged 127 physiotherapists to play a simulation game and choose a therapeutic strategy for three cases of low back pain of increasing difficulty (easy, medium, difficult). We measured their IU level and their resource consumption (i.e., requests for test results for each case). Our results showed that 87.4% of participants chose the most appropriate strategy for the easy case, 46.5% for the medium and 29.1% for the difficult. For the easy case, IU and resource consumption had a negative influence on the chosen therapeutic strategy, which was less adapted. Moreover, resource consumption among highly intolerant individuals had a more adverse influence on the chosen strategy. However, we did not find the same results for the medium and difficult cases. We propose hypotheses to explain this difference (i.e., system 1/system 2, consideration of the physiotherapist's speciality, perception of uncertainty). We also outline potential improvements to our tool and suggest future research avenues.