**5. Conclusions**

Given the multiple psychological and behavioral impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, we must focus on the common psychological underpinnings behind the typical manifestations of these impacts. The need for structure is one such motivational factor and can predict many psychological and behavioral performances. Despite the general individual

differences in the need for structure (to be specific, higher-class individuals exhibit lower need for structure), individuals will demonstrate the same higher preference for structure under the threat of COVID-19 pandemic, regardless of their social class. Therefore, when formulating pandemic-prevention policies, the governments should give more consideration to protect the needs of structure, order, and certainty of individuals from different social classes, races, and groups.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, T.-T.R., S.-L.Y. and X.Z.; methodology, T.-T.R., S.-L.Y. and X.Z.; formal analysis, T.-T.R. and S.-L.Y.; data curation, T.-T.R. and S.-L.Y.; investigation, T.-T.R. and S.-L.Y.; writing—original draft preparation, T.-T.R. and S.-L.Y.; writing—review and editing, X.Z. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 72001171), Humanity and Social Science Youth foundation of Ministry of Education of China (No. 18YJC190029), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2017M623138).

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and approved by the Biomedical Ethics Committee of Health Science Center, Xi'an Jiaotong University (Approval Code: 2021-1549).

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

**Data Availability Statement:** Data will be provided if requested to the authors.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
