A Psychological Take on Fighting COVID-19
What behavioural science says about how we should handle the pandemic
COVID-19 has brought about some quirky outcomes in our everyday life. The reduced functionality of the world is certainly affecting our molecular life. The healing seems slow while the resilience requirement is paramount. Efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic is eminent in all spheres of life.
In these efforts, are we addressing our psychological wellbeing as much as our physiological self? — probably not as much!
Tiny tweaks in our own personal actions could shape society, starting with small changes in our thoughts, behaviour and everyday practices.
Here are a few science-backed strategies to guide us in the correct direction from an individual’s behavioural perspective:
1. Minimizing the threat perception: Humans are rationally intimidated by any threat that exhibits fear. However, our reaction totally depends on how we perceive the threat. Research suggests that human exhibit the greatest behavioural change to overcome threat when they have confidence in self-efficacy. On the other hand, the perception of personal low-efficacy amidst an imminent threat would be counterproductive. Therefore, let us believe in our resilience first and keep ourselves away from the stream of negative news in the media.
2. Managing “Optimism bias”: There is a fine line between being optimistic and being irrational. Some people often perceive a false belief that bad things are less likely to befall them compared to other people. People refusing to wear masks in crowded public transport and ignoring public health warnings are prime examples of such behaviour. However, we must strike a balance in our own perception for breaking optimism bias without inducing pandemic anxiety at the same time.
3. Managing emotions: We always do a quick cost-benefit analysis of our actions while estimating any risk. Accurate estimation of health risk depends on factual information and rational thinking. On the other hand, our emotion interferes with our ability for rational thinking. Therefore, factual information has to pass through our emotional barrier to initiate action.
Negative emotions can lead to perceiving negative information which in turn will lead to wrong actions (e.g., not wearing masks, believing in conspiracy theories etc.). To make things worse, negative framing capture human attention which the news media often practice. We need to maintain a positive state of mind to control emotions which will help us filter factual information from the ocean full of fakes, deep-fakes and meta-fakes.
4. Using “us” instead of “I”: It is a very popular perception that people get panicked and act in self-preservation during natural disaster instead of being considerate to everyone else. “Stockpiling” and “panic buying” during the COVID-19 pandemic are used as an example.
However, research has found that while some people exhibit selfish behaviour, most people show empathy during a natural disaster.
“Panic buying” maybe explained rationally if compared with the “over-reaction” of people during a fire emergency which is less likely to cause harm than “under-reaction”.
On the contrary, the images of empty shelves could incite a vicious cycle in human behaviour forcing us to believe that people are only looking out for themselves, which in turn could encourage the desire to do the same. We must put our efforts forward to break this vicious cycle of individualism and competitiveness.
5. “Social distancing” is wrong: The term “social distancing” is being misused from the start to reduce the contagion of COVID-19.
Alternatively, we should use “physical distancing” acknowledging the fact that social interaction is still possible even though we are physically distant from each other. Virtual interactions and distant contact with closed ones could help compensate for the lost social dimension of our life to a great extent.
6. Stress is not the enemy: Years of research points towards the direction where the amount or type of stress do not determine how bad the impact would be, rather how we perceive the situation does.
Moreover, a positive mind-set during high-stress situation fosters “stress-related growth” which psychologically toughens us in the long run.
Maintaining an adaptive approach to a stressful situation have been found to have fostered both physical (by reducing negative health symptoms) as well as psychological (by inducing positive emotions) gain.
7. Don’t say no to professional help: It is natural to feel overwhelmed at times due to anxiety. We should seek professional help whether it may be psychological or physiological whenever those anxieties go beyond our control.
Last but not least…
While some of the above-mentioned strategies could be suitable for future pandemics, we might need to constantly re-evaluate our phycho-social toolbox to innovate as we evolve as a human race.
References
(1) Crum, A. J., Akinola, M., Martin, A. & Fath, S. The role of stress mindset in shaping cognitive, emotional, and physiological responses to challenging and threatening stress. Anxiety Stress Coping 30, 379–395 (2017).
(2) Crum, A. J., Salovey, P. & Achor, S. Rethinking stress: the role of mindsets in determining the stress response. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 104, 716–733 (2013).
(3) Van Bavel, J. J., Baicker, K., Boggio, P. S., Capraro, V., Cichocka, A., Cikara, M., … & Willer, R. (2020). Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response. Nature human behaviour, 4(5), 460–471.
