This study is concerned with cognitively and consciously enacting a new dialectical opposite-unity approach into Chinese harmonious discourse (CHD) analysis in an ecological perspective, which contributed to converting antagonistic thinking between human and nature into an ecological harmonious one cultivated into an unconscious state. The method applied is primarily the theoretical analysis and interpretation, due to the newness of this subject and the lack of corpus data. The motivation of this paper is evoked by the discovery of various cognition dissonances and insufficiencies with the academic development of newly born ecolinguistics. On a micro or specified level, this paper presents a cutting-edge example of an ecologically cognitive approach to the analysis of CHD, based on Chinese dialectical opposite-unity philosophy, to construct a higher-level cognition mechanism into a habitually unconscious thinking state. Such a mechanism has its practical significance in devoting to alleviating the ecological crisis by a change in ways of thinking, mediating cognitive dissonance brought about by the crisis, and improving the one-sided cognition deficiency brought about by ways of antagonistic thinking in order to maintain the ecological harmony. The theoretical significance lies in it demonstrating the cognitive process about how the unconscious ecological harmony cognition is cultivated by the conscious operational opposite-unity cognition procedure, with the ultimate purpose to achieve and maintain a real ecological harmony, under the cross-cultural background. With the COVID-19 pandemic breaking out globally in early 2020, the problem of ecological crisis has been studying in domains of linguistics, social sciences, psychology, and discourse analysis, etc. Then, countless studies have warned of the disastrous consequences of such a crisis and put forth proposals for global sustainability e.g., . All schThis article proceeded to assume that the fundamental nature of destructive discourses from the ecological crisis comes from the antagonistic ways of cognition between humans and nature, definitely resulting in “the eco-deficit culture.” Therefore, this article intends to solve the above thinking problem by emphasizing insights from Chinese culture, philosophy, ecology, cognition, which could shed new light on our reshaping, refreshing the multidisciplinary research of ecological beneficial discourse and promoting its role in our long-term quest to protect ecology, so as to reshape human behaviors and ways of thinking.This article adopts a Chinese culture and philosophy-based dialectical opposite-unity (DOU) cognition mechanism, which echoes the assertion of Chinese philosopher Laozi, founder of Taoism, who advocates doing nothing that goes against nature. Furthermore, DOU has been seeking to find efficient cultural and cognitive responses to the nowadays ecological destruction and sustainability threats, in order to negotiate the antagonistic cognition and raise human thinking to a higher and harmonious level for protecting nature. Therefore, DOU represents a seemingly cognitive unity and unconsciousness, from thousands of years conscious cultivating the extraction ability of life laws toward Chinese various opposite-unity discourses.This paper offers a tentative interpretation of how a DOU cognitive mechanism is developed and used, which fell within the ecologically beneficial approach. Well-spoken or well-written passages can evoke our deepest emotions and elicit all manner of consciousness and could reactions. This is usually taken to be an insurmountable explanatory challenge for ecological approaches to cognitive science , p. 1, tBy proposing the typical Chinese philosophy of Confucianism, Taoism, and Mohism (CTM), commonly characterized by DOU thinking mechanism as the basis of ecological cognition, this paper attempted to analyze and interpret CHD in an interdisciplinary ecological cognitive perspective, for supplementing discourse theories, and for promoting ecological harmony.On the one hand, in order to raise an ecological harmonious ethics awareness and self-realization in a deep sense, the concept of “eco-cognition” with an ecologically beneficial goal and with DOU as the mechanism could give an impulse to reconsider harmonious discourse research as a unique and consistent mode of telling ecological stories. Therefore, one of the motivations of the eco-cognition mechanism is concerned with interpreting CHD on a micro and specified level instead of a macro and general one.On the other hand, some scholars believe that ecolinguistics leads to a new “holistic” worldview, in which “everything is inter-connected, inter-dependent and inter-acting,” looking at ecolinguistics as a dialectical philosophy” , p. 268.To sum up, as philosophically minded ecolinguists look more profoundly at discourse study on a meta-level, the ecological cognitive problem is unavoidable.Ecolinguistics, as a transdisciplinary science , transcends traditional linguistics and creates an awareness of the interdependency of all things and ideas . In thisWith the ecological turn, ecocriticism , ecopoetOn this level, “eco-” is regarded as a philosophical perspective guiding and improving various research including linguistics and cognition, functioning as the core concept and essential connotation of “eco” disciplines, according to which “eco” is also rationally taken as a philosophical guideline for the cognition research. Additionally, traditional Chinese cognition is always based on philosophy, so the term “eco-cognition” is always a “philosophy + cognition” integration, a Chinese “DOU” philosophy-based cognitive mechanism, specifically. As eco-linguistics has been inviting many analytical perspectives into a nexus or established theoretical core, eco-cognition is one of them with its dialectical approach as the harmonious solution for cognitive dissonance brought about by the one-sided positive discourse or critical discourse.Thus, “eco-” has become a commonly used prefix to manifest the interdisciplinary and philosophical stance, such as the term “eco-literacy” coined by David Orr and Fritjof Capra for awareness of ecological problems and the role language plays in creating this awareness . And theAs mentioned in In order to fully understand these opposite units, scholars invite the concepts of “ecologically dialectical philosophy” , p. 19, Such a traditional Chinese approach also has its role in mediating the cognitive dissonance and antagonistic thinking characterized by formulation inconsistency, into an ecological harmonious state characterized by unity and consistency. It is an accomplishment not only needs consciously cognitive efforts, but also the appropriate and effective strategies and theories, different from the conventional unconscious, basic, and embodied cognition. In this perspective, not only the structure, characteristics, and purposes of harmonious discourse should be illustrated, also the corresponding cognitive mechanism.In order to make clear the research objectives of this paper, some discourse problems to be solved must be first reviewed.Ecolinguistics is generally divided into two categories: Haugen’s metaphorical model and Halliday’s non-metaphorical model. “Ecology,” “environment,” “language ecology,” “ecological language,” and “ecologically critical/positive discourse” become the basic concepts of ecological linguistics. Scholars have been developing roughly four strands that differ in how they interpret what the environment of language is. These strands include symbolic ecology, natural ecology, socio-cultural ecology, and cognitive ecology , the lasFor a more accurate literature review, an advanced search was carried out in Web of Science (WOS) with “ecolinguistics” as the keyword, source category as WOS core collection, and literature type as articles in 74 related journals were searched, and the “Keywords” of 74 journals were analyzed by CiteSpace software. Time: 1997–2020.As mentioned in (1)ecologically critical discourse analysis e.g., ;(2)ecologically positive discourse analysis e.g., ;(3)Both of the two with finding and correcting human-centered ideology resulted in the global ecological crisis as the main concern.Chinese ecolinguistics is a newly born multidisciplinary research project, beginning from the founding of the Centre for Ecolinguistics at South China Agricultural University initiated by Huang Guowen. This is the first international conference on ecolinguistics in China . From then on, ecolinguistics is taken more as a philosophy and a state of mind in which harmony, above all other ideas, is dominant.On the macro-level, the research of “harmony” invites Chinese linguists to profoundly probe the ecologically beneficial discourse, termed as harmonious discourse. CHD mainly revolves around the balance of the above two discourse categories by way of Chinese DOU philosophy and cognition.On the micro-level, the majority of Chinese scholars follow Halliday’s systemic-functional way in dealing with ecolinguistics e.g., , in a maEcolinguistics is supposed to be seen as a unified ecological worldview cf. . More woOur conclusion is that the only way to coherently relate ecological and cognitive conceptions of CHD meaning is to understand the latter as a Chinese philosophy-dependent identification of a hugely heterogeneously opposite class of formulations with a unifying property (unity).Ecological meanings of discourses are inspired by models of cognition as fundamentally interactive , and suc(1)On a macro-level, the interpretation of the CHD in an ecological cognitive perspective;(2)on a meso-level, the illustration of the origin, definition, characteristics, and goals of a newly born ecological cognition in a newly born CHD;(3)on a micro-level, the explanation of the CHD by Chinese “dialectical opposite-unity” ecological cognitive mechanism, in order to solve some cognitive dissonance and improve the basic cognition to a higher level.The most important contribution made by the ecological cognitive approach is that it accounts adequately for the role played by dynamic harmonious discourse patterns in the control of higher-level opposite-unity cognition.On the one hand, the theoretical significance of this paper is that it did not only contribute to establishing a new relationship between humans and nature but also to the self-improvement of cognitive theories, mechanisms, models, and values onto a higher level.On the other hand, the practical significance of this paper is that it examined the DOU mechanism of CHD from the perspective of ecological cognition, which was conducive to providing a rational path for improving the effectiveness of understanding a newly born harmonious discourse, under the cross-cultural background. Such a cognition up-gradation is expected to reduce ecological crisis and achieve real ecological harmony, to some degree.Ecolinguistics and eco-cognition, in the context of discourse ecology and the interaction between discourse and cognition, embodies the concept of revisiting the discourse and cognition system to the natural ecosystem, developing into an ecologically beneficial model of discourse formulation and cognition mechanisms. Examining the CHD from the perspective of ecological dialectical cognition is conducive to providing an effective path for effectively spreading the Chinese harmony concept and dialectical approaches of cognition.As discussed above, scholars had sought to classify ecolinguistics not as a science but as a philosophy related to cognition, which echoes the assertion of Chinese philosophy-based cognition, in order to find out more about the world and even may help to improve awareness and life.Harmonious discourse research comes from the urgent need to balance the critical discourse analysis (CDA) and positive discourse analysis (PDA) presenting themselves in solving the global ecological crisis respectively. The former criticizes those ecologically destructive discourses, and the latter seeks to find out various ecologically beneficial lexicons and expressions. The problem of the two lies in both presenting just one-sided research objectives, motivations, and methods. Either critical or positive stance is not sufficient for achieving real ecological harmony. That is why the harmonious discourse developed to balance the two is proposed, which meanwhile provides a pathway to amend some cognitive dissonance and deficiencies to a more abstract and higher one.Critical discourse analysis is traditionally based on ideology and power relations. This ideology is explicitly or implicitly Marxist. Ecological discourse analysis (EDA) makes it quite different in that it founds itself on the preservation of life on earth and avoidance of suffering, especially avoidance of anthropocentric. For this purpose, the concept of “harmony” was proposed in discourse analysis. Thus, a new category which was “harmonious discourse” is presented.As ecological meaning is a property of relations between living organisms and their environments see , ecologiTo achieve the first objective of this paper on a macro-level, to interpret the CHD in an ecological cognitive perspective, this paper first introduced the philosophy basis of both CHD and Chinese cognition mechanism, with the interaction and interchangeability of yin + yang Taoism as the essence, with the opposite expressions as the discourse structure.The advanced search was carried out in WOS with the keyword of “ecological philosophy,” and the source category was the WOS core collection. The literature type of 1077 articles in related journals was searched, and 1,077 articles were analyzed by “keyword” with CiteSpace software. Time: 1976–2020.As noted above, ecological philosophy presents colorful diversity in different academic fields. For example, the study of In this case, Chinese dialectical harmonious philosophy could be a valid candidate, with an emphasis on mediating various opposites into a deeper and higher sense of self and life, instead of following the mind/body dichotomy, providing a real place where Eastern philosophy, Western philosophy, and even quantum physics could meet one another.Chinese ecological philosophy based on the tradition of Chinese culture and history has always been developing metaphysical foundations for establishing and improving harmonious social relationships. “Harmony” is widely acknowledged as the main concept in ecologically beneficial philosophy and discourse, aiming to establish and maintain a harmonious relationship between the environment and human beings. It has been already illustrated in Chinese CTM around which harmonious discourse revolves its main concerns, characterized by thoughtfully subtle implicitness and opposite-unity. Such a deliberate style of discourse is regarded as a deciding factor in keeping harmonious relationships.Chinese Taoism has been coherently taking the world as a whole for thousands of years, and the wholeness contains yin and yang sides. One Yin and one Yang are called Taoism, so as to keep the permanent energy conservation (能量守恒). Taoism has always had its role in guiding Chinese thinking, cognition, communication, education, and maxims in life.As mentioned in The core feature of such a dialectical interactive and interchangeable yin + yang model is that the understanding of yin only through contrasting with yang, and vice versa. These are principles of the whole universe and whole nature. Yin + yang by itself is a dialectical way of thinking, the process of which is through finding the common property of the two opposite concepts to achieve a subtly unified understanding of some ecological principles about life and behaviors. In certain conditions, yin could be converted into yang, and vice versa. Therefore, there always exist Chinese sayings “否极泰来” , “塞翁失马焉知非福” (an old frontiersman loses his horse–a blessing in disguise).Such yin + yang model constitutes the traditional Chinese philosophy and provides the formulation mode of CHD. The cognitive mechanism of these opposite two is through the process of “dialectical opposite-unity” to achieve the ultimate harmony, by way of “property” induction, refinement, and extraction. On this level, yin and yang are the two sides of a coin, and the two opposites have to be merged into a more abstract property covering the sense of the two, generating a subtle unified understanding in the form of an emergent property. Thus, CHD analysis is first based on and characterized by an ecologically beneficial philosophy with yin + yang dialectical unity, in order not only to superficially present the two extreme possibilities by words but also provide a way of balancing the yin and yang to achieve a more harmonious state of mind.That is, ecological cognition is balanced and unified by the pros and cons of the same speech event or phenomenon to achieve Chinese Taoism with abstract yin + yang property, so as to realize the typical Chinese natural law of “Tao follows nature” (道法自然) and “harmony between man and nature” (天人合一).Similar to Taoism Taiji, nowadays quantum physics featured by its overthrowing the original dualism, reductionism, realism, and locality view of the world, presents a many-dimensional world and possible world view, thus reality being a higher-dimensional space, and the world view is changed thereby. Quantum thoughts hold that there existing two opposite beliefs in quantum entanglement of oneself which addresses the fundamental nature of reality, and the mind simultaneously accepting both of them, integrating them into a “Chinese yin + yang Taiji.”From the above, Chinese ancient scholars, ecolinguists and quantum physicists have proposed that human beings have been cooperatively creating their “reality” with the interaction between natural ecology and social ecology, between the opposites into a dialectical unity. In this aspect, the research of CHD and its opposite-unity cognition actually offers new insights into the role of human minds and their quantum entanglement to the rest of the world. Chinese Taoism has some common maxims with twenty-first century quantum physics, integrating to promote researchers to re-define the key notions in linguistics and cognition.Historically, Chinese Confucianists have always been attaching importance to “benevolence” to other human beings and nature. The law of Confucianism proposes to eliminate ethical evil and promote good and seek to establish and maintain social stability, harmony, and order. As a breakthrough of Chinese Philosophy in governing the country, Chinese Taoism seeks a deeper sense of “eternal rules” of dealing with the world. The representative scholar Lao Zi governs the country with “Taoism” in order to achieve ecological harmony and equality. Chinese Mohism takes “love and mutual benefit” as the ethical principle, with “salvation” as the core. It advocates that humans, nature, and society are inseparable wholeness, and develops the traditional dialectical “argumentation” of epistemology.The above Chinese eco-cognition based on ecological philosophy is thought to be in the holism of CTM, with particular emphasis on harmony between humans, nature, and society. Thus, harmonious discourse and eco-cognition fall within a unified ecological worldview.Chinese dialectical philosophy integrating with quantum physics evoke a revolution of ecological philosophy in unifying world views, values, ethics, and other concepts and ideologies into a concept of “Harmonious Coexistence” proposed by Chinese scholars, to make a Chinese contribution to the global ecology.To achieve the second objective of this paper: on a meso-level, the illustration of the origin, definition, characteristics, and goals of a newly born ecological cognition in a newly born CHD, this section is to introduce the terminology of ecological cognition and its fundamental role in harmonious discourse.As to the origin of ecological cognition (eco-cognition), Chinese cognition characterized by DOU is generally deemed as a representation and iconicity to Chinese philosophy (相由心生), they have been usually probed interdependently, because of their common “harmony” perspective and assertion. So ecological cognition in China just means the harmony-oriented and Chinese philosophy-based mechanism of recognizing the world, to develop the ecologically beneficial approaches of constructing cognition models.The common ground for the discussions of Chinese traditional dialectical cognition as the basis, mechanism, and process of harmonious discourse analysis is an attempt to conceptualize dialectical cognition as a kind of ecologically beneficial cognition with harmony as the core and main concern.By virtue of a lack of systematic theories and methods in ecolinguistics, it is rational and necessary to integrate other theories, such as cognitive linguistics and philosophy, among others, to make multidisciplinary ecological discourse research. That is the reason for this paper taking ecological cognition and ecological philosophy as the supplement for ecological discourse study. As ecolinguistics is previously seen as a kind of hidden ideology study for protecting life, it has been developing an awareness of the interdependence among things and ideas, which could be further interpreted by Chinese yin + yang interaction and interchangeability.As to the rationality of the concept of “dialectical” cognition, the Odense school bases its ecolinguistics, explanatory models, on both Marxist and non-Western models of dialectics, e.g., Buddhist philosophy .On the one hand, nowadays cognitive theories attach too much significance to the basic cognitive mechanisms such as image schema, metaphor, metonymy, and cognitive grammar, etc., resulting in some biased views of taking cognition as an unconscious process. Unconscious perspectives are destined to give rise to some cognition deficiencies, muddying the water of consciousness study, preventing the insight into higher cognition from being specified.These deficiencies have been noticeably found out in two aspects: first, some scholars are programmed to take either a positive or critical approach as the unilateral final solution to the ecological crisis, especially in EDA, without the consideration of balancing and integrating the two within “harmony.” Such a phenomenon fully implicates that various cognition deficiencies negatively affect the human mind and behavior. Second, few people are capable of merging the two opposite concepts into one more abstract and subtle covering property, due to their habitually unconscious intention of trying to save their cognitive efforts. So they just understand the discourse meaning as they are, incapable of consciously analyzing, inducing, extracting, and refining the possible emergent property covering the two opposites, fully manifesting the cognition unconsciousness. Chinese DOU could be a candidate to solve the above problems.Meanwhile, nowadays physical Quantum theories attach an increasing significance to consciousness, studied within the non-matter, energetic framework, echoing to Chinese subtle and abstract property covering the opposites for meaning unity. And Besides, Anna To sum up, by virtue of the cognition deficiency and unconsciousness, and based on a holistic theory proposed by quantum and ecologists, the main function of eco-cognition is to meet the requirement of a new multidisciplinary scientific research as cognitive tools and methods to recalibrate the philosophical, cognitive and socio-cultural perspectives of ecological harmonious discourse, creating a new ecologically beneficial holistic cognitive mechanism by DOU process, proposing a new harmonious cognitive mechanism to deal with the ecological crisis.Such a new interactive wholeness world view substitutes the dualism and reductionism of the classical science, and directly turning the linguistic study breaking through the ontology limit into an epistemological one, shifting the ideology, values, and behavior into a dialectical yin + yang Taiji spiral recycle, renovating the basic cognition to an improved and upgraded level, to altogether build a new model of reality.To accomplish the third objective of this paper which was on a micro-level, the explanation of CHD by Chinese “DOU” ecological cognitive mechanism, in order to solve some cognitive dissonance and lift the basic cognition onto a higher level, this section presents ecological cognitive DOU mechanism in CHD.Chinese harmonious discourse is characterized by the opposite expressions with reversible order, but with identical meaning characterized by property unity. For example, “否极泰来” , the reversible order “泰极否来” still tells the same law and property, representing the same sense with “否极泰来,” with the meaning of everything going to the opposite if it reaches the extreme, based on the opposite-unity mechanism. Thus, the Chinese mediocre spirit is proved to be an acceptable life state to achieve real ecological harmony.The effectiveness of the above ecological cognitive mechanism lies in its operational principle: opposites in expression(formulation) and unity in conceptualization by an emergent property. This is because Chinese discourses universally function as an initiator of consciousness toward some particular states, practices, and principles about life, ethics, values, thoughts, and behaviors, advocated by Taoism, Confucianism, or Mohism. In the process of pursuing the promotion of human nature, thoughts, behaviors, and ethics, the conscious process of induction, deduction, refinement, and extraction of property are habitually cultivated. Chinese have been successively and conventionally digging a deeper sense for discourses and speeches, whenever and wherever possible. Therefore, whether or not expression orders are reversible, they just tell the same story(sense) by retrieving the same subtle and abstract property as the higher-level cognition.Deep ecologists insist that their philosophy is not a branch of environmental ethics, but something “deeper,” but the deeper aspects are not clarified. That is where the above Chinese CTM-based DOU philosophy functions. In the new context of quantum holistic worldview and Chinese philosophical wholeness combined, discourse analysis and their corresponding cognitive process are to be regarded as a mutually supported and mutually converted Taiji yin + yang or cause + effect perpetual recycle. Therefore, CHD is different from the general discourse studies which primarily focus on a linguistic level.Chinese harmonious discourse is a deliberate balance between critical and positive discourse biases, proposing the most important analyzing factor in ecological discourse, which is “harmony.” There exist two research tendencies in discourse studies seeking to solve the ecological crisis: CDA and PDA, the former is “an approach to language study which theorizes the instrumentality of language in creating and sustaining power and inequality in social actions, identities and relations” , p. 1. SMost ecological scholars hold a critical view toward the destructive discourse resulting in the ecology crisis. In order to reduce the number of destructive discourses and to increase that of positive discourses to achieve ecological harmony, scholars have been developing PDA. “A positive style of discourse analysis that focuses on hope and change, by way of complementing the deconstructive exposé associated with critical discourse analysis” , p. 29. Through identifying the stereotypes of linguistic patterns in positive discourses, scholars intend to inspire respect and care for the natural world through finding out the positive features in discourse expressions. But PDA is also criticized that “One danger of (PDA), however, would be that of the enterprise turning into a form of propaganda on behalf of the status qu” , p. 204.The above two discourse studies fail to provide an appropriate solution to the nowadays ecological crisis, due to the lack of cognition in an ecological harmonious way. Critical and positive discourses, in their essence, are understood as both still holding the critical attitude in an ideal world, leading to their staying within a narrow research scope and only proposing ecological slogans such as peaceful co-existence and interdependence. Their just paying lip service to the wholeness world view and interactive model of ecolinguistics is insufficient in the micro and operational research of harmony philosophy, theory explanation, and social praxis, which is incapable of solving the ecology crisis caused by anthropocentric, economic development, and post-industrial civilization. CHD is expected to make some amendments to the above deficiencies, by the DOU mechanism.The concept of CHD is the traditional native Chinese discourse theory , etc., wSimilar to the above, some scholars take consciousness as an emergent property of brains, which could be analyzed and interpreted by the Chinese eco-cognition mechanism, for it involves the conscious and deliberate cognition of the whole world in order to contribute to upgrading cognitive competence to a higher level.Both the “critical” and “positive” methods of discourse research all present a sort of one-sided bias, unqualified in establishing a dialectical wholeness in comprehending discourse, that is why CHD is presented and focused. The Chinese way of constructing a harmonious state, no matter in harmonious discourse or ecological cognition, is through the mechanism of the “property unity” covering the opposites, that is Yin + Yang → unity, integrating into a polished Taiji wholeness of construal.As no corpus evidence could be provided due to the newness of CHD analysis, especially in the perspective of ecological cognition, this paper mainly adopts a theoretical analysis and interpretation. In general, the discourse realization process is represented by the Chinese convention of Yin + Yang, represented by Yin property +  Yang property → Taoism (interaction + interchangeability) → dialectical emergent property(unity), both highlighting the concept of “harmony” as the deep-core sense in Chinese discourse. For example:最明亮时总是最迷茫，最繁华时也是最悲凉。                                           (林语堂《京华烟云》)The brightest is always the most confused, the most prosperous is also the most sad.(Lin Yutang’s smoke in Beijing)The above “brightest” (yang) and “confused” (yin) and “prosperous” (yang) and “sad” (yin) constitute the opposite expression, deliberately juxtaposed to elicit different kinds of cognitive involvement , put together to acquire an emergent property (unity) or sense in the process of the deeper digging of their Taoism abstract property. Foregrounding two opposite words with the same importance certainly enacts a fundamental mediation to the cognitive dissonance from the opposites, effectively resulting in a third subtle, abstract, superordinate, emergent, balance-oriented property of a covering sense of these two words.ad hoc psychological quantum entanglement features, the understanding of which could only be the result of insight from dynamic nature and society. Put it in another word, the developing process of everything implicitly entails its opposite result, which reminds and implicates a necessity of cautious speech and behavior in a modest way, which is the optimal approach of achieving harmony.The instantiation of the operation of Taoism is clearly shown in the above utterance. Taoism, as a Taiji dialectical way of conscious thinking, is a complex thing, which cannot be decomposed into a simple group of simple components without destroying its essence. Thus, such unity is characterized by non-localized and Such a mechanism of cognition not only contributes to the ecological protection of life but also to the upgrading of intelligence. The research of newly born dialectical ecological cognition aims to consciously illustrate and evoke the harmony discourses, perspectives, concepts, and behaviors, which is capable of maintaining the ecology in a peaceful cycle.Chinese dialectical harmonious way of discourse formulation has been devoting to the revision of the unilateral ideas about nature and society, acquiring a radical innovation in our reconstructing our recognition toward nature and reality, on a higher cognitive level. Chinese is always harmonious with every creature in the world, respecting nature and other human beings, which helps to solve the ecological crisis.Chinese harmonious discourse is possible to bring about an overt cognitive turn toward the inner insight, illocutionary sense, and emergent property, which has its role in altering the structure, strategy, and mechanism of discourse analysis, for the purpose of holding the whole ecology in a balanced, interactive and harmonious state, avoiding the ecological crisis brought about by all kinds of extremes, and adjust the behaviors to the changing environment of nature and society. The two opposites not only represent the interaction between static and dynamic states in life but also direct oneself to compare the two and probe deeper self and nature.This harmony-oriented opposites-unity mechanism requires that the cognitive subjects mentally co-operate as a cognitive multiagent, evoking a more profound understanding toward ecological relationships, possible to enforce their cognitive agency and to improve their cognitive competence and thinking from an antagonistic way to harmonious way. The dialectical discourse and cognition mechanism are bound to stimulate a quite different mode of mental involvement, highlighting a state of unconscious property-extraction originating from a deliberate consciousness.Dialectical ecological cognition is one of the most effective strategies for establishing linguistic and psychological interactivity. Foregrounding the process of intermingling opposite meanings within harmonious discourse mode may act as an innovative attempt to represent the fluidity of dialectical consciousness → unconsciousness → consciousness + unconsciousness intersections, contributing to “community of common destiny for all human beings” advocated by China.The author confirms being the sole contributor of this work and has approved it for publication.The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.


The social identity model of risk taking proposes that people take more risks with ingroup members because they trust them more. While this can be beneficial in some circumstances, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic it has the potential to undermine an effective public health response if people underestimate the risk of contagion posed by ingroup members, or overestimate the risk of vaccines or treatments developed by outgroup members.Three studies  with community-based adults tested the potential for the social identity model of risk taking to explain risk perception and risk taking in the context of COVID-19.N = 2033) replicated these findings in a two-wave nationally representative Australian sample. Study 3 (N = 216) was a pre-registered experiment which found that people indicated greater willingness to take a vaccine, and perceived it to be less risky, when it was developed by an ingroup compared to an outgroup source. We interpret this as evidence that the tendency to trust ingroup members more could be harnessed to enhance the COVID-19 response.Study 1 was a two-wave study with a pre-COVID baseline, and found that people who identified more strongly as a member of their neighborhood pre-COVID tended to trust their neighbors more, and perceive interacting with them during COVID-19 lockdown to be less risky. Study 2 (Across all three studies, ingroup members were trusted more and were perceived to pose less health risk. These findings are discussed with a focus on how group processes can be more effectively incorporated into public health policy, both for the current pandemic and for future contagious disease threats. Effective and persuasive public health messaging has rarely (if ever) been more critical, and will remain so until vaccines have been effectively distributed worldwide.In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments have appealed to their populaces to engage in sustained behavior change perceive to be high risk and those where the majority of transmission is actually happening. Several epidemiological studies have found that the vast majority of COVID-19 transmission occurs in homes  to strongly agree [7]. This scale has been validated and widely used, with evidence suggesting it has comparable psychometric properties to longer social identification scales  was used.A single item was used: “In general, I trust my neighbors” with response options from do not trust at all [1] to trust unconditionally [7]. This one-item trust measure was adapted from a validated single-item general trust scale, which has been widely used in population surveys .Study 2 used a more behaviorally-oriented indicator of risk taking (vs. risk aversion): the degree of actual physical distancing from neighbors that participants indicated that they engaged in. Participants were given the following background: “Social distance rules endorsed by the Australian government stipulate a distance of 1.5 meters between yourself and others. But really it is you that decides how much distance you keep from different people. Imagine walking down the street, how much distance do you think you would keep between yourself and the other persons listed below?” Different options were then presented including “a neighbor” , as well as “a person from another neighborhood”, “a stranger” and “a close friend”. Response options ranged from no distance [1] to more than 2.5 m [7]. Visual indicators of the distance between two people, modelled on local public health messaging, were included to aid interpretability.To evaluate the hypothesis, a mediation model was specified in PROCESS (v.3.3)  with 500p < .001, and T2 neighborhood trust was, in turn, significantly associated with reduced T2 physical distancing, β = −.11, p < .001. Supporting the hypothesis, the indirect effect of neighborhood identification on physical distancing via trust was significant, β = −.02 . The model is summarized in Fig. T1 neighborhood identification significantly and positively predicted T2 neighborhood trust, β = .18, difference between the degree of physical distancing from (a) a person in one’s own neighborhood and (b) a person from another neighborhood. If significant, this analysis would suggest that the social identification is not related to a general tendency to physically distance from everyone (or not), but rather its effects on risk are, as hypothesized, specific to the social group in question. This would strengthen our confidence that this is a social identity phenomenon.As an additional test of the model, we calculated the dependent variable as the p < .001), and trust predicted the difference between distancing towards neighbors versus non-neighbors at T2 . The indirect effect was significant, β = −.01 .In this analysis, which in line with the primary model included T1 covariates, the effect of T1 neighborhood identification predicted T2 neighborhood trust  people from other neighborhoods, (b) a stranger, and (c) a close friend. In no case was there a significant indirect effect, or an effect of T2 neighborhood trust on physical distancing.Study 2 replicated the results of Study 1 and built on them in several ways. First, it was able to control for baseline levels of neighborhood trust and physical distancing, which increased our confidence in the direction of the hypothesized effects. Second, in Study 2 the measure of COVID-19 risk was based on self-reported behavior of a key COVID-19 preventative measure: degree of physical distancing. This increases our confidence that these psychological processes have public health implications. The hypothesized indirect effect and focal model pathways, although significant, were substantially smaller in Study 2 than in Study 1. This is likely due, at least in part, to the inclusion of covariates . However, another possibility is that the effects are more modest in size for risk taking compared to risk perception. A final strength of Study 2 was the inclusion of measures of physical distancing with non-focal (out) groups, and we found that the effect of ingroup trust was specific to fellow ingroup members, and did not extend to other groups .Study 3 sought to extend our analysis in two ways. First, it utilized an experimental design to provide the strongest test of the causal role of ingroup trust on COVID-19 risk. Second, it utilized validated multi-item measures of trust and risk behavior. Third, it included a control condition, with a view to investigating the inferences people make about trust and risk in the absence of explicit information about group membership. Fourth and finally, Study 3 aimed to provide an initial test of how the link between ingroup trust and COVID risk might be fruitfully used to inform the public health response. We reasoned that one of the greatest challenges of behavior change still ahead in combating the pandemic is persuading the global population to accept a COVID-19 vaccine. All vaccines have some  risk associated with them, and these potential risks are often amplified and given undue emphasis by vaccine sceptics , 28. In Prolific, an academic research web platform, between 13 and 17 August 2020 – when hundreds of vaccines were in development, but results of phase 3 trials were not yet available. Participants were 108 men and 104 women, with four people indicating that they were non-binary or choosing not to disclose their gender. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 72  and were diverse in terms of their educational attainment. Participants were paid the standard Prolific rate for their time (approximately AUD$8.30/h).Participants were 216 Australian residents recruited for an online experiment via Study 3 was an experiment with three conditions: ingroup source, outgroup source, and control. Participants were asked to consider a hypothetical scenario in which a COVID-19 vaccine was announced in a press conference by Australia’s medical officials. Participants first completed a social identification scale to make their social identity as an Australian salient.“I am pleased to announce that a first vaccine for COVID-19 will, from tomorrow, be available to the Australian public.The vaccine was developed by [Australian/French] scientists and has passed the final stage of testing. It showed an 85% success rate in preventing the virus and carries only a 2% risk of serious side effects, which [our/France’s] leading health experts consider an acceptable level of risk.Of course, this vaccine is being made available around the world, including in Australia. A website has just gone online where everyone can sign up to receive the vaccination, and indicate the doctor’s surgery where they would like to receive it.This will be the first stage in rolling out the vaccine to all Australians.”Participants were then asked to imagine that the following scenario in a speech attributed to Australia’s chief medical officer. The control condition excluded the text in square brackets and did not attribute the vaccine or the risk evaluation to any particular group.French people were selected as the outgroup for several reasons. We sought a real-world outgroup which was perceived by Australians to be of similar status  and to be a nation about which Australians tend to have relatively neutral stereotypes .https://aspredicted.org/h8qj9.pdf). The pre-registration also included a power analysis, which indicated a recruitment target of 250 to achieve a minimum sample size of 207 for analyses.The design, measures, hypotheses and analyses were pre-registered .Participants in the ingroup condition expressed greater trust in the vaccine scientists, β = .53, Comparisons between the control condition and each of the group membership conditions revealed no significant effects except the effect of trust on risk, which was robust in all conditions. However, inspection of the estimated marginal means . However, shared identity can nevertheless be emphasized on dimensions other than nationality, potentially encompassing all of humanity [Study 3 provided several new insights. It replicated the previous studies in finding that ingroup trust is a key predictor of COVID-19 risk. However, Study 3 focused on a different domain of risk: perceived riskiness of and willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. This is important because it suggests ways in which the general tendency towards ingroup trust might be utilized for effective public health messaging – by emphasizing that vaccine development is an humanity , 32.Study 3 had several strengths over the prior studies, including its pre-registered experimental design and its use of more comprehensive validated measures of the constructs of interest. However, a limitation of Study 3 was that the findings may have been influenced by the specific ingroup and outgroup selected , and the real-world intergroup dynamics of these groups driven by normative content and status. The effects may have been quite different if, for example, a high status country  had been selected as the outgroup. Findings should thus be generalized with caution, and with consideration of these dynamics. This limitation is best addressed in research by employing a minimal group paradigm, where the groups in question have no real-world “baggage” associated with them. Although this was not possible in the context of the present study, previous research has shown that the effects proposed in SIMORT also emerge in the context of such paradigms . The comAcross three studies, we have found evidence that COVID-19 risk and preventative behaviors are fundamentally structured by our group memberships – and most pertinently, by the greater trust that we afford fellow ingroup members. Study 1 demonstrated that people who strongly identified as a member of their neighborhood prior to the pandemic trusted their neighbors more during lockdown, and felt that interacting with them would be safer. Study 2 replicated this in a nationally representative sample of over 2000 people, finding that neighborhood social identification predicted positive change in neighborhood trust, which in turn predicted reduced physical distancing from neighbors. Study 2 also demonstrated that this phenomenon was sensitive to the specific group membership of the target group, with physical distancing from strangers, close friends, or people from other neighborhoods unaffected by neighborhood trust. Study 3 was a pre-registered experiment that sought to test whether it might be possible to harness these social identity processes in a positive way: to reduce perceived risk of a COVID-19 vaccine and increase willingness to receive it. Here, we found that participants who considered a vaccine developed by ingroup scientists (compared to outgroup scientists) were more likely to trust those scientists and, in turn, were less likely to perceive the vaccine as risky and were more willing to receive it.The evidence presented here speaks to the nuanced understanding of group processes, and trust in particular, that is needed to accurately model health behavior. Of course, ingroup trust has many benefits, such as facilitating cooperation, helping, and, particularly relevant in this context, solidarity in the COVID-19 response . HoweverThe findings also speak to the utility of behavioral science, and social psychology in particular, to provide meaningful recommendations for tackling real-world problems. Indeed, as others have argued, this may be most especially true in times of crisis –37. AlthThere are several implications of these findings for the practical management of the COVID-19 pandemic . First, they suggest that a particularly beneficial focus for public health messaging may be emphasizing the dangers posed by the people we are closest too . People require very little encouragement to avoid strangers and outgroup members. However, the perceived risk is lower in one’s closest networks, and even if people are aware of these risks, they may be more likely to consider them worth taking. Therefore, investment is needed in messaging to provide people with guidance about how gatherings with loved ones can be made safer.claim this axiom, but also embody it consistently in its public health messaging [Similarly, uptake of COVID-19 vaccination  is likely to be greatest when promoted or developed by ingroup members – who are perceived to be more trustworthy. “We are all in this together” has become a cliché in the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is a wise and effective government that is able to not only essaging .certain people take risks with certain targets – and it is this more nuanced perspective on risk that warrants continued investigation in future research.One notable feature of these studies is that they were all conducted in Australia, a country that has to date been relatively successful, globally speaking, in its COVID-19 response. COVID-19 risk in the community is therefore objectively lower than many countries, and risk perception may also be attenuated. However, it is worth noting that all three studies included participants based in Melbourne, which had recorded over 20,000 cases and 820 deaths at the time of writing and endured one of the longest and most restrictive lockdowns in the world. Therefore, it is not the case that Australia has been entirely spared by the pandemic. Future studies examining these effects might be particularly compelling if they were able to demonstrate that rates of COVID-19 transmission were affected by one’s subjectively assessed group membership with, and trust in, the index case. Importantly, though, we would not expect overall differences in likelihood of transmission to differ between “low” and “high” identifiers with any particular social group. Rather, social identity can explain why COVID-19 has become a pandemic when many other candidate viruses did not. This, we contend, is at least partly because it exploited fundamental features of human psychology: our strong desire for human contact, and our willingness to discount risk associated with our closest companions. In three studies, this paper found that our willingness to take risks associated with COVID-19 transmission  is greater when the source of these risks is perceived to be a member of one’s own valued social group. This tendency was fully mediated by our tendency to trust ingroup members, even in circumstances where this might be detrimental to our health. To tackle this and future pandemics more effectively, it is vital that public health messaging effectively communicates that transmission risk is often greatest with the people we care most about.


Six themes emerged: (1) emotional responding; (2) relatedness to others; (3) thinking; (4) overstimulation; (5) perceiving details; and (6) global SPS characteristics. With regards to coping with negative consequences of high SPS, the main themes were: (1) reducing sensory input and (2) psychological strategies. We gained fine-grained information on experiences of adults high in SPS and derived new hypotheses regarding the fostering of well-being related to high SPS.Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) is a personality trait reflecting inter-individual differences in sensitivity to negative and positive environmental information. Being high in SPS is associated with increased stress-related problems if environments are unfavourable but also appears to enhance one’s ability to benefit from health-promoting environments. In understanding SPS, therefore, lies the potential for innovating the ways we use to promote mental health. However, as a young research field, the core characteristics of SPS are yet debated. Qualitative research interviewing highly sensitive adults is important to conduct ecologically valid research connected with the complex realities of people. This study was the first to systematically report the perceptions and experiences of SPS characteristics in adults high in this trait. Semi-structured interviews ( Everybody is, for survival, sensitive to environmental stimuli, although the degree of sensitivity differs between individuals. Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) captures a continuum of inter-individual differences in sensitivity to environmental information in an evolutionarily conserved personality trait, observed in >100 animal species ,3,4. AltThe SPS construct was first described in 1997, based on a literature review in combination with qualitative interviews . CurrentYet, there are still limitations to both the HSP scale and its theorising. Interpretation of questionnaire results is always limited by the content validity of the scale. The results from the HSP questionnaire differ from current theorising in that there is an overemphasis on overstimulation in the HSP scale, whereas depth of processing is only indirectly captured in the aesthetic sensitivity component . FurtherGiven the limitations of the main scale to assess SPS, a qualitative approach that gains independence from the scale is highly suited and complementary to quantitative research. Since SPS is a young research field, qualitative research on the everyday experiences of highly sensitive individuals themselves could lead to new hypotheses for ecologically valid quantitative studies that are connected to the complex realities of people and are better able to capture heterogeneity in experiences ,17. MethTo conclude, substantial progress in phenotyping and validation of SPS has been made, but more insights are needed on the everyday experiences of highly sensitive individuals themselves. Therefore, a qualitative inductive approach was chosen to explore SPS, using thematic analysis and following consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ) criteria . This isThis study included adults aged 25 to 50 years who considered themselves highly sensitive and were fluent in Dutch. The age range was chosen to balance the heterogeneity and homogeneity of the sample. The study was advertised, primarily, by two Dutch SPS knowledge centres and a charity with a large and active database of people high in SPS, and secondarily on social media pages of the researchers. The advertisement provided brief information about SPS and asked for participation in a study on experiences of highly sensitive adults. Participants had to register their interest to be interviewed via the website of the Donders Institute, where they completed a short form about their demographics, contact details, and other background questions.In total, 494 people signed up between 3 February and 16 November 2020 . To ensuWe followed the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research COREQ,  20]. Al. Al20]. The demographic variables sex, age, and highest level of education were assessed for selection of participants and demographics. Education level was dichotomised, and a higher education level was defined as having completed a university or university of applied sciences education .p < 0.001.To check high SPS, we used the established 27-item Highly Sensitive Person Scale (Cronbach’s α = 0.81) . ExampleTo further aid the phenotyping of participants, Big 5 personality traits were assessed by a validated Dutch adaptation of the 60-item Big Five Inventory 2 (BFI-2) ,24. ThisWe conducted semi-structured interviews using a topic guide with open-ended questions about what the participants considered to be key characteristics of SPS and how these characteristics are perceived and experienced . Moreover, we asked questions about coping with the negative sides of being highly sensitive and what they need for their well-being and the moment and impact of realising being highly sensitive. Furthermore, questions were asked about well-being and psychological and somatic problems. We added a question to check whether the corona situation influenced the answers provided in the interview, and all participants said it did not.n = 24) to schedule the interview and establish a relationship. The interviews were conducted by the authors of this study, who are four experienced and certified female interviewers (MSc and PhD) and two trained female research interns (MSc level). The participants did not know any further details about the researchers’ goals and interests. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic measures, only four interviews occurred in person at a research institute. The other interviews were conducted by video call (n = 21) and phone (n = 1). The interviews were in Dutch and lasted between 52 and 110 min, with an average of 75 min. Conducting interviews was performed in parallel with analysing the data between February and December 2020.Two pilot interviews, not included in the analysis, were conducted with self-identified, highly sensitive people from our own network. Minor changes were made in the interview protocol based on these interviews. The selected individuals were invited by e-mail or phone call. Reminder emails were sent when necessary. Before the interview, phone contact occurred with almost all participants  was 37.41 years (SD = 6.73).The average age of the sample , and to negative media . For example, one participant stated that negative comments hurt her more deeply than they would hurt other people:P20: “When I am at a party for example and I say, like: ‘What nice tableware’ or something like that and somebody says, like: ‘Well, I think it actually looks terrible’, then I can suddenly start thinking: ouch! That it cuts me deeper than I perceive it cutting people around me. And then I really feel like a scared little animal that’s easily hurt or something.”The second subtheme, the experience of strong positive emotions, included being touched by music and other forms of arts and the ability to intensely enjoy the small things in life:P9: “Very small things, I can intensely enjoy those, yeah. Small things that people often overlook. A breeze through your hair for example, or the sun that shines, or leaves that make that rustling sound when you walk over them in autumn.”As a third subtheme, participants indicated needing more time to process emotions, particularly negative emotions. One participant reflected on his response to watching violent videos:P22: “It seems that many people don’t mind it if they, for example, look at a video which contains violence. They can just scroll away. But with me it actually sticks. It hits me really hard and it just sticks.”Five subthemes emerged. First, participants reported they readily notice or feel other people’s emotional states and the atmosphere of a situation. For example, they can sense when people had an unresolved disagreement:P10: “I can just look around the group and immediately spot who is feeling well and who is fighting as a couple, or where there’s tension.”Second, attention to the needs of others was perceived as a core feature of SPS, i.e., finding it important to contribute to other people’s well-being (“pleasing”), sometimes at the cost of their own needs. For example:P8: “When I work together with colleagues for example, I very quickly know like: this colleague likes this, this colleague likes that. So, I often get told that collaborating is nice, because I, of course, think like: oh, that one likes to do things that way, and that one likes to do things that way. But more often than not I forget to think about my own interests.”Third, the ability to understand other people’s emotions and intentions was mentioned. For example, participants reported being able to take the perspective of others:P14: “When I first make contact with children, especially when they are new arrivals, I very quickly notice […] I start reacting very enthusiastically or I need to really stay calm. Yeah, for the most part I quickly realise how a child is put together and how I can respond to the situation.”Fourth, participants described situations in which they acted on what they knew about other people’s emotional or cognitive states. For example, when they noticed someone did not feel well, they would approach this person to help:P21: “When someone says, for example, like ‘sure, I’m okay’, I might want to ask like ‘hey, how are you really? Because I see this and this.’”Fifth, participants expressed feeling a deep connection with other people, including family, friends, and people they do not know. They actively look for ways to create these feelings of connection and want to share these feelings with others. Some participants mentioned a downside of this characteristic:P19: “When I am really good friends with someone, that can be a real deep feeling you know? A true connection, as if it’s family I guess. So, when something negative happens or there’s a fight one time or something, then it kinda really hits me hard.”SPS characteristics related to thinking were categorised into three subthemes. First, participants indicated they worried and ruminated more than others about both private and societal events. This worry includes a tendency to relate (negative) things that are being said to themselves. One participant mentioned that rumination prevents him from falling asleep:P14: “Like when I finally lie in bed and go to sleep, everything keeps like rolling around in my head and I keep mulling things over. And yes, I do mean every time, I can never get to sleep in one go. For example, my ex, they always said good night and they were gone within ten seconds, but I would keep thinking for an hour before I fell asleep.”Second, participants mentioned thinking and reflecting a lot. For example, they tended to need more time to make decisions:P6: “Sometimes it takes awfully long for me to make a decision, because I want to weigh all the options and the pros and cons and what everyone’s opinion might be. These are mostly, for example, things we are going to do, and my girlfriend then thinks: get on with it already.”Third, a higher need for depth and meaning was expressed. For example, in conversations, they prefer exploring topics in-depth over small talk:P11: “My father always said: ‘you always get so philosophical right off the bat’. And then I think: What are you talking about? I am just talking about the state of my life or how I experience something or think about it and he immediately thinks it’s deep?”Four subthemes emerged that are related to ease of overstimulation. The first two subthemes were related to the source of overstimulation. Participants indicated being easily overstimulated, in particular by sensory stimuli, such as noise, lights, scents, and tactile stimulation (clothing). One participant provided an example of overstimulation by visual stimuli at work:P19: “Well, at my work at [company] we naturally have rather bright lights to nicely illuminate all those [products], but sometimes I would just stand still for a moment […] but then if one of those bright lights might shine on my face in that particular spot, I would step aside, because I know it might cut really deep and would need to be processed, so to speak.”Overstimulation can also be caused by social stimuli, such as large crowds:P13: “I actually don’t go to large events in large venues anymore. I do that very rarely because I know I can actually only take it for like an hour or something.”The third and fourth subthemes concerned the effects of overstimulation. Overstimulation could lead to reduced cognitive abilities, such as being distracted, feeling restless, and not having a clear mind. For example, overstimulation could negatively impact decision-making abilities:P5: “I actually have a lot of problems making decisions when I experience some overstimulation. Well, I have that after a day of work when I stand in the supermarket, where I think: I can’t take this, I’ll just make spaghetti bolognaise again or whatever.”Overstimulation can also lead to negatively affected mood, as expressed by the following participant who describes being irritated and angry as a result of overstimulation:P16: “People who are constantly clicking their pens, oh, please stop. I can’t stand it. I get incredibly annoyed. I don’t know what it does to me specifically. I’m not that far yet. But I get incredibly annoyed by it. I just go off like a firework, I just get angry and rebellious and then I’m like: cut that out.”Two subthemes were identified. First, many participants indicated they perceived a greater quantity of information. This was often referred to as a “lack of a filter”:P24: “I sometimes specifically notice that when you walk past some place while you’re with someone, you might see something really beautiful and the person you’re with just completely misses it or walks past it.”The second subtheme is a perception in greater detail, by one participant described as perceiving the world in “high definition”. One example is a more detailed perception of visual and auditory cues in non-verbal communication, such as facial expression, body language, or tone of voice.P9: “You notice a lot more details of things. For example, my wife showed me a picture this morning, a baby picture, never seen it before. ‘Who is that?’ she asks. I say: ‘that’s your father’. But I’ve only known her father since he was a grownup. She asked: ‘I hadn’t even recognised him. How did you know?’ ‘Well, his eyes, his ears, I guess... I dunno.’”This theme refers to overarching SPS characteristics that were related to and sometimes described as the consequence of more than one of the abovementioned themes. Three subthemes on global SPS characteristics were defined. The first subtheme concerned self and identity and includes feeling different and having low self-esteem because of their high sensitivity. Moreover, some participants considered being highly sensitive an essential part of themselves:P4: “It [HSP] really encompasses your entire being.”As a second subtheme, participants indicated feeling easily stressed and finding it difficult to relax:P7: “I would like to be able to relax more, that is, in the evenings. I am constantly in ‘hurry-up’ mode.”Lastly, feeling tired was mentioned as a general trait of SPS, sometimes described as having a lower energy level. For example:P25: “It’s as if I’m more conscious of those details, those expressions, of what comes back to me. And it’s a lot of fun and actually quite useful. But it can also be quite tiring without you noticing it.”Other (sub)themes include difficulties with (pressure from) work or study, creativity and a greater quantity of ideas, both introversion and extraversion, working hard and perfectionism, intense experiences and a rich inner world, spirituality, associative thinking, a specific physical sensitivity , impulsivity, autonomy, and being able to integrate and draw conclusions from complex, subtle details. Examples of the last subtheme include an increased ability to sense and anticipate problems and to know what to do to prevent or resolve them. With regards to introversion and extraversion, most participants described themselves as an introvert and seeking quiet environments because of their ease of overstimulation, but at the same time, most also described themselves as sociable, and some described the need to external stimulation and being sensation-seeking, suggesting their introversion-extraversion level may depend on the situation and their level of overstimulation.Two themes, reducing sensory input and psychological strategies, with six subthemes were identified, reflecting the strategies and activities that improve well-being. The (sub)themes are presented in descending order of the number of participants who mentioned them. Example quotes are provided in Two subthemes emerged related to reducing sensory input. First, almost all participants mentioned a need for solitude and quiet environments as a strategy to deal with or prevent overstimulation. They expressed a need for time for themselves to relax and recharge. They fill this time with different activities, such as walking in nature, quiet activities, sleeping, and simply “doing nothing”. Second, strategies were mentioned to reduce specific sensory input. For example, some participants reported using noise-cancelling headphones or sunglasses.Three subthemes are related to psychological strategies. First, support from others was important to some participants. For example, they expressed the need to share their experiences with other (highly sensitive) people and to feel understood. Second, several participants used techniques from mindfulness, meditation, and yoga to process information and to let go of negative thoughts. Third, positivity, acceptance, and reflection help deal with negative thoughts and can stimulate or enhance positive thoughts, according to the participants.Other (sub)themes include an environment in which they are able to act autonomously, a career that fits with being high in SPS, exercising and a healthy diet, routine and structure, and avoiding watching the news or violence. Moreover, some participants mentioned they are not yet sure what works best for them and try out different strategies.Participants were on average 30 years old when they found out they were high in SPS, which was on average seven years ago. About half of the participants indicated that going through difficult times, such as psychological or relationship problems, was the indirect cause of learning about SPS. When asked about the direct cause, about half of the participants mentioned that someone else, such as a friend, family member, or psychologist, pointed out to them that they might be highly sensitive. Many participants viewed SPS as an explanation for some of their feelings and behaviour. For example, it felt “like the puzzle pieces fell into place” and “a hundred things suddenly make sense”. Moreover, some participants experienced a feeling of recognition. They realised they were “not crazy” and felt relieved there was “nothing wrong” with them. In addition to that, learning about SPS helped cope with the negative sides of SPS because SPS could serve as a starting point in the search for information.Most of the participants expressed a high current level of well-being. Moreover, around half of the participants reported internalising problems in the past or in the present, such as burnout, depression, or anxiety, and related these problems to the experience of stress that comes with being highly sensitive. Half of the participants reported experiencing a higher level of well-being after the realisation of being high in SPS, and the other participants did not report a change in well-being. Regarding attitude towards SPS, most participants indicated having a positive attitude, and some expressed a neutral or balanced view towards SPS. Two participants mentioned viewing SPS as entirely negative because of their depression or anger, and they related these symptoms to their high sensitivity. Most of the SPS characteristics were viewed as both negative and positive or as entirely positive. For example, participants appreciated their tendency to help others but also saw the trade-off with regards to their own needs being sacrificed. Overstimulation, tiredness, and stress were exclusively viewed as negative.n = 14; 8 males, 5 lower educated, age: M = 38.64 years, SD = 7.12) attended the interactive meeting to learn about the preliminary results of this study and provided feedback. The participants noted that the results supported their view on SPS. They also asked questions, e.g., about the differences between SPS and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), ADHD, and giftedness. We took their questions and suggestions into account in the interpretation of the findings.About half of the participants themes not described previously. A sixth theme emerged on perceived global SPS characteristics that concerned self and identity , feeling easily stressed, and feeling tired. Whether these identified experiences are central and essential to high SPS cannot be disentangled in our design, but our results suggest that these experiences may be central to how the trait is experienced by highly sensitive adults, although several participants also reported experiencing the characteristics in the six theme as a consequence of several of the other five themes.Our sample’s score on the Big 5 questionnaire and their responses on the interviews were in line with quantitative personality research that showed that SPS correlates with negative emotionality and openness to experience .Although some of our participants (had) experienced burnout, depressive, or anxious symptoms, they also expressed experiencing a high current level of well-being. This fits well into the two continua model, which describes that measures of (positive) mental health and measures of mental illness are two distinct but correlated continua . AnotherThe strategies and activities of individuals high in SPS found in the current study are in line with a previous study that identified several enablers of well-being for people high in SPS, including mindfulness training and meditation, positive relationships, solitude, and practicing emotional self-regulation . PreviouGiven that SPS is a trait emerging early in life ,13,30,31One strength of the current study is the demographically relatively balanced sample with regard to age, sex, and education level. This increases the ability to capture heterogeneity and is complementary to the group-based analyses in previous quantitative research on SPS. Another strength of the study is that SPS and personality scores supported that the participants were highly sensitive in the way described in the scientific literature.This study also has other methodological strengths that improved the interpretation of the findings, including following the COREQ criteria  and the One limitation of this study is a potential self-selection bias . As the Lastly, many of our findings seemed specific to SPS and may be regarded as specific in that the constellation of characteristics (themes) co-occurred in most of our interviewed participants rather than reflecting general human experiences. For example, many participants spontaneously compared their experiences to those of the people around them.Future research on this topic could study SPS in other demographic groups. First, our findings were based on a Dutch sample, and a previous qualitative study used a U.S. sample . CulturaOur results give rise to novel hypotheses for follow-up in quantitative research. For example, we hypothesise SPS to be related to enhanced affective and cognitive empathy , which cResults from our study may be used to optimise the HSP scale by developing questionnaire items people can relate to. The current HSP scale disproportionally captures negative aspects of SPS related to overstimulation and emotional reactivity, with very limited items on cognitive aspects of SPS, empathy, or positive emotional responsivity , althougThe similarities and differences between SPS, ASD, ADHD, and giftedness, which our participants enquired about, could be studied in future research. Sensory sensitivity has been found in both ASD and ADHD ,36. HoweDuring the past decades, the topic of SPS has gained increased interest in society. This interest was also expressed by the high numbers of people who showed interest in participating in our study . In the interviews and the meeting with participants, it was expressed that knowing about SPS could already improve well-being. The participants emphasised the importance of spreading knowledge on both the positive and the negative sides of SPS to society, for example, to schools and employers, to reduce the stigma and improve the well-being of people high in SPS. As 20–30% of the population is high in SPS , creatinIn conclusion, scientific insights into SPS can help understand SPS better, which might improve the person-environment fit for people high in SPS in all kinds of environments such as education and work. However, to allow scientific insights to reach society easily, more publicly available knowledge must be spread. This could be achieved, for example, by raising awareness in practical articles in magazines, social media, and presentations in teacher and health care education.This study provided a rich understanding of how adults high in SPS experience the positive and negative characteristics of the trait. This conceptualisation can be further tested in quantitative research and contributed to generating ecologically valid hypotheses about phenotyping of the SPS trait. This study broadens the horizon on the theoretical perspective on SPS as well as a more practical view on coping with the negative sides of SPS and the well-being of individuals high in SPS.


We used logistic regression analysis to investigate the effect of family separation on (i) being time-stressed and (ii) having a high risk for adverse mental health, considering sociodemographic and postmigration factors. As a result, more than 30% of participants with a spouse or partner and about 18% with a child or children reported separation. Multiple logistic regression showed that family separation was not associated with being time-stressed, but separation from at least one child was associated with adverse mental health . In conclusion, family separation primarily contributes to adverse mental health among refugees from the Middle East and Africa resettled in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Therefore, policies and practices that facilitate family reunification can contribute significantly to the promotion of refugees’ mental health and well-being.Little is known about social determinants among refugees resettled in Germany. This study aims to examine the impact of family separation on refugees’ subjective time pressure and mental health. Data come from the FlueGe Health Study ( In 2015, the ongoing wars and conflicts in the Middle East and Africa led to a dramatic increase in refugees making their way to Europe crossing the Mediterranean ,4,5. TheMany refugees are dealing with loneliness and the experience of loss ,10. RefuTime pressure has one objective dimension and one subjective dimension . The objSeveral studies show that family separation may affect refugees’ mental health ,28,29 anThus, the goal of our study was to investigate the impact of separation from spouse or partner and/or child or children as a nuclear family on mental health and subjective time pressure, as it may be a stressor involved in the stress–distress relationship, among refugees in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, considering sociodemographic and postmigration factors as the main relevant confounders.Data come from the FlueGe Health Study (FHS), a cross-sectional study administered by Bielefeld University, conducted on refugees from the main countries of origin that contributed to the European refugee crisis in 2015 and 2016 in the region of East Westphalia-Lippe in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The data were collected between February and November 2018 and included personal interviews and physical examinations, carried out by trained interviewers. Informed consent forms, information letters, and the questionnaire were translated into the following five languages by Kantar Public, a consulting and market research institute: Arabic, Farsi, Kurmanji, English, and German. Participants were recruited from shared and private accommodation in eight different locations in East Westphalia-Lippe, with municipal cooperation partners and social workers providing access to potential participants. The FHS included all participants who were willing to participate (convenience sampling) and signed informed consent, excluding those who were younger than 18 years of age; could not speak Arabic, Kurmanji, Farsi, English, or German; or had been in Germany for more than five years. Prior to the interviews, all potential participants were personally informed by the field team about the aims and procedure of the study during an on-site visit with an invitation to participate. The field team consisted of an academic researcher and trained interviewers in the required languages. All potential participants who could not be contacted in person received a letter informing them of the study aims and procedure and asking them to contact the field team by telephone. Approval from the Ethics Commission of Bielefeld University was obtained before the data were collected to ensure ethical and data protection guidelines were followed.n = 130 had an inadequate language level, and n = 371 refused to participate in the study. The main reasons were personal reasons and no interest in the research. A total of 326 men and women signed informed consent  and completed the study. Prior to data analysis, the FHS study population was reduced to individuals with a spouse or partner and/or a child or children (n = 208).A total of 827 men and women aged 18 to 75 years were assessed for eligibility and invited to the study. Of these, Subjectively perceived time pressure was assessed using a single-item question from the German Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP): “Please think about the last four weeks. How often did it occur within this period of time that you felt rushed or pressed for time?” with five possible responses: “Always”, “Often”, “Sometimes”, “Seldom”, and “Never” . In ordeMental health was measured using the mental component summary (MCS) score of the Short Form-12 Health Survey-SOEP (SF-12-SOEP) . To compFamily separation was indicated by asking participants the following question: “Where do your (i) spouse or partner and (ii) child or children live now if present?” with predefined response categories: “Here in the facility/flat”, “Nearby, in another facility/flat”, ”Elsewhere in Germany”, “In our native country”, “Elsewhere abroad”, “I don’t know” and “Deceased”. Responses were categorized into separated  versus not separated .Sociodemographic and postmigration information included age, sex, country of origin, residence status according to the German residency law, and length of stay since the arrival to Germany. Information on country of origin was categorized into six groups: Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, African countries, and other countries. Residence status was categorized as secure  and insecure . The length of stay since arrival in Germany was determined using an official proof of arrival and the time of the interview, categorized as <12, 12–24, 25–36, and >36 months.t-test. Multiple logistic regression [p < 0.05.Statistical analyses were performed using STATA MP in version 16. Descriptive statistics were used to examine participants’ time pressure, adverse mental health, family separation, sociodemographic, and postmigration characteristics. Differences in time pressure and adverse mental health by family separation, sociodemographic, and postmigration factors were analyzed using chi-squared, Fisher’s exact, and gression  was applConcerning family separation, it was found that the majority of respondents with a partner and at least one child were not separated (76.5%), while 11.8% of respondents who were separated from their spouse or partner were also separated from their child or children.n = 129), which had an acceptable fit . Participants with insecure residence status were more likely to be time-stressed as compared to those with a secure status.n = 124), also with an acceptable fit . Separation from at least one child was strongly associated with a higher risk for adverse mental health. Furthermore, female sex and insecure residence status were also found to be positively associated with a higher risk for adverse mental health, while a length of stay of more than three years since arrival was negatively associated.This study aimed to investigate the association of family separation with time pressure and adverse mental health considering the main relevant confounders of sociodemographic and postmigration factors among refugees in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. This study showed that separation from at least one child was positively associated with a higher risk for adverse mental health; however, separation from spouse or partner and/or child or children was not associated with being time-stressed.In our sample, about 38.9% of refugees were classified as being time-stressed; however, one study examining the relationship between socioeconomic characteristics and time pressure in the German general population based on SOEP data in its 2002 wave version using the same instrument  showed aConcerning our second hypothesis that refugees who are separated from their family members experience adverse mental health, we did find support that separation from at least one child might be a source of health inequalities among resettled refugees. Our findings show that separation from a child may be a risk factor for mental illness, which is consistent with previous research highlighting the negative impact of child separation on migration-related stress , distresConcerning sociodemographic and postmigration factors, multiple logistic regression revealed that insecure residence status was positively associated with both being time-stressed and having a higher risk for adverse mental health. This is consistent with the literature, as previous research showed that insecure residence status can cause postmigration stress  and poseThere are several limitations to our research. First, we utilized data from the FHS, and selection bias may be an issue because participants in the FHS were self-selected. This means that individuals who were not interested in health issues have decided not to participate in the FHS. In addition, the research questions for this study were developed after the data were collected, so we lack some important information that could be helpful to further understand the relationship between family separation and time pressure. Asking about premigration stressors and reasons for time pressure since their arrival might be beneficial to further understand time pressure as a potential determinant of health among refugees. Another limitation arises in connection with the cross-sectional design. Thus, we were unable to examine the temporal relationship of family separation with time pressure and adverse mental health; longitudinal design studies are recommended. Moreover, there is a need to disentangle the pathways between family separation, time pressure, and mental health through mediation analyses. In addition to that, both outcome variables were dichotomized for regression analyses, resulting in a loss of information , particuThe study investigated the association of family separation with subjectively perceived time pressure and adverse mental health considering the main relevant confounders in a resettled refugee population in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Participants’ with insecure residence status experienced more time pressure, whereas females, those with an insecure residence status, and those separated from at least one child were at higher risk for adverse mental health. We believe that the present findings help to underscore the importance of family for refugee mental health. Therefore, policies and practices that facilitate family reunification can contribute significantly to the promotion of refugees’ mental health and well-being and thus their integration. Future studies may take a closer look at the temporal relationship of family separation with time pressure and adverse mental health.