Functional fear predicts public health compliance in the COVID-19 pandemic
Journal article
Authors | Harper, Craig A., Satchell, Liam, Fido, Dean and Latzman, Robert |
---|---|
Abstract | In the current context of the global pandemic of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), health professionals are working with social scientists to inform government policy on how to slow the spread of the virus. An increasing amount of social scientific research has looked at the role of public message framing, for instance, but few studies have thus far examined the role of individual differences in emotional and personality-based variables in predicting virus-mitigating behaviors. In this study we recruited a large international community sample (N = 324) to complete measures of self-perceived risk of contracting COVID-19, fear of the virus, moral foundations, political orientation, and behavior change in response to the pandemic. Consistently, the only predictor of positive behavior change (e.g., social distancing, improved hand hygiene) was fear of COVID-19, with no effect of politically-relevant variables. We discuss these data in relation to the potentially functional nature of fear in global health crises. |
Keywords | COVID-19; pandemic response; health anxiety; social distancing; hand hygiene; public health |
Year | 2020 |
Journal | International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction |
Publisher | Springer |
ISSN | 1557-1874 |
1557-1882 | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/jkfu3 |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00281-5 | |
Web address (URL) | http://hdl.handle.net/10545/624780 |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode | |
hdl:10545/624780 | |
Publication dates | 27 Apr 2020 |
Publication process dates | |
Deposited | 04 May 2020, 10:49 |
Accepted | 12 Apr 2020 |
Contributors | Nottingham Trent University, University of Winchester, Georgia State University and University of Derby |
File | File Access Level Open |
https://repository.derby.ac.uk/item/93455/functional-fear-predicts-public-health-compliance-in-the-covid-19-pandemic
Download files
59
total views0
total downloads3
views this month0
downloads this month