How the COVID-19 Pandemic Plays into the Psychology of Risk and Stress
This Journal Belongs To
Dean M. Pucciarelli
It Will Get In Your Head If You Let It
The COVID-19 virus has posed its threat on our bodies but how does it also effect our mental state?
8 Mins Read Time
This past week, while sitting at home, I’ve nonchalantly watched an entire Netflix series and failed at cooking seven new dishes. As an added bonus, I regularly wonder when I’ll be able to talk to someone without screaming from my upstairs window. It could take weeks, maybe even months, until we can drive to a sit-down restaurant and not have to worry about whether or not the server is going to cough a hearty slab of coronavirus onto the plate.
COVID-19 has killed more than 230,000 people with three and a quarter million plus confirmed cases around the world. Yes, confirmed cases. There’s always the few among us that’ll develop a cough, think it’s nothing more than the common cold, and venture off to get the weekly groceries. Those who will refuse to get tested, even though they’re hosting this new microscopic enemy. Young adults, like myself, aren’t taking this situation as seriously as it should be taken, likely because of a false belief that the virus won’t harm them. Take for example these college students on spring break in Miami:
While it’s true that among patients between the ages of 20-54 the fatality rate for COVID-19 has been reported to be below 1%, these feelings of safety because of age are simply wrong. Another analysis from the CDC claims that about 20% of infected persons from ages 20-44 were hospitalized, with 2-4% needing to be transferred to intensive care. The virus may be less deadly for younger people, but that doesn’t make us invincible.
Take my family for example; all of us ended up victims of the pandemic. Thankfully, we all beat the virus without needing to be hospitalized; regardless, the manner in which we were infected was highly frightening. The first to fall victim in my household was my father. Before you ask, yes. He took every necessary precaution in his workplace, like wearing a mask, to prevent from getting infected. Yet, he – a man who prides himself in never getting sick – ended up ill. After isolating himself from the rest of us, the uninvited guest still made way to plague my entire home. Even with the utmost of precaution, the virus still welcomed itself into our lives. This is what we’re dealing with.
Photo: Kirk Truman
Photo: Kirk Truman
This makes it clear: leaving the house, for anyone, is a risk. Stepping outside for a quick walk or even going to an “essential” workplace is a risk; driving the car, going to the grocery store, and strolling around the park, are all risks.
Data from the Instituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, an Italian health research agency, tells us that 60.4% of all reported Italian cases of COVID-19 are biological men. In terms of fatality, the New York State Department of Health claims that 59.7% of all deaths in New York State are also men, supported by further research by the Instituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome which shows that more than 70% of deaths in Italy are similarly men,. In addition to this, an Italian study reported that 82% of COVID-19 related intensive care admits were men. However, in some circumstances, infections of women have surpassed those of men; for example, in South Korea, roughly 60% of coronavirus cases reported have been biological women.
As a whole, this suggests that the virus disproportionally affects men in comparison to women. The worst part of this is that men are simultaneously the least risk averse sex. Low risk aversion means that men are more likely to engage in a risky activity, even with the forecasted psychological impact of repercussions. Higher risk aversion, often found in women, is the exact opposite.
A study done by Nancy Jianakoplos and Alexandra Bernasek on men and women found that women are more risk averse than men when examining risk in financial decisions, suggesting men are more prone to taking risks. Another study by Steven Albert and John Duffy involving a lottery task found that older adults are significantly more risk averse than young adults. All of this tells us that the demographic most prone to engage in risky behavior is young men. That means that young men, in particular, are most likely to develop symptoms of COVID-19.
Hear me out: young men are psychologically more likely to leave the house as a function of being less risk averse. That means that they’re more likely to come into contact with the virus, and contract symptoms. Perhaps this explains why, in the words of President Trump, “[young adults are] feeling invincible” during this pandemic, helping the virus plague the United States and world at an alarming rate. This may account for why men accrue a higher percentage of the aforementioned Italian cases, but it doesn’t explain the massive difference in deaths between men and women. This is exactly why men need to take even more precaution.
Another substantial psychological effect of COVID-19 is that it may cause a massive upsurge in stress. According to the CDC, fear and anxiety revolving around this novel coronavirus may be “overwhelming and cause strong emotions”, and two potential impacts of this are highly disturbing. Research from Mara Mather and Nicole R. Lighthall found that under stressful conditions, there is an upsurge in male risk-taking behavior, suggesting that stress resulting from the pandemic may be causing men to leave the house more, ultimately making it more likely for them to contract the virus. Females, by contrast, decrease their risk taking even more when under stress, so the virus itself may actually decrease how often females leave the house.
The second potential impact is a result of long-term stress; the National Institute of Mental Health claims that long term stress can cause a series of physiological problems, for example disturbing the cardiovascular system, and can even lead to severe mental illnesses like depression and anxiety. While COVID-19 presents a massive epidemiological battle to the world, this tells us it’s affecting us in deeper, more personal ways – ones that can affect our mental health.
All that can be said from this is that the psychology of risk and stress have a massive impact on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak. Whether you’re young or not, or just think you’re immune, you aren’t. I’ll probably never say this again, but nonetheless here it is: sit on your couch, watch television, and just stay home. What a lot of us have always wanted to hear is finally true – staying in and doing nothing is good for you.