Fig. 1
From: Task-unrelated thought increases after consumption of COVID-19 and general news
Relationship Between Task-Unrelated Thought Ratings and COVID-19 News Consumption (Study 1). Note Task-unrelated thought (TUT) ratings (1 = completely on-task to 4 = completely off-task) are shown as a function of COVID-19 news consumption (panel A) and an interaction of motivation ratings and COVID-19 news consumption (panel B), from Study 1. Panel A: boxplots of average TUT ratings when participants did and did not consume COVID-19 news; individual averages shown as dots. COVID-19-related news consumption (“Yes”; shown in purple/darker color) was associated with higher ratings of TUT (1 = completely on-task to 4 = completely off-task) compared to the absence of COVID-19-related news consumption (“No”; shown in green/lighter color). Panel B: Line graph of average TUT ratings when participants did and did not consume COVID-19 news at different levels of task motivation (1 = not motivated at all to 5 = extremely motivated). Error bars represent the standard error of the mean. The association between TUT and COVID-19 news consumption varied as a function of task motivation