GVSU expert: Constant messages about coronavirus can amp up anxiety, affect how you assess personal risk

Non-stop news coverage about COVID-19 (coronavirus). Constant updates on new cases. Different messages about the severity of the illness. Travel restrictions. Government briefings on containment efforts. Calls for staying calm. Wash your hands for 20 seconds. No handshakes. Hoarding food and medical supplies. Friends on social media either panicking or scoffing at the worldwide reaction.

It's all enough to produce heightened worry or anxiety in even the calmest person, even though there currently are no confirmed cases in Michigan. And as a Grand Valley researcher knows, anxiety affects your ability to effectively process health information.

Amanda Dillard, associate professor of psychology, specializes in studying how emotion and risk perception motivate health behaviors. She said health decisions can often bring on anxiety, with the result leading to both negative and, yes, positive effects. 

"When people are highly anxious about processing information about a health threat, they'll actually take in information about the threat less carefully," Dillard said of research findings. "Yet, anxiety also makes them want to do these preventive things, like going out and buying masks, even if they didn't read anything about masks.

"Anxiety is one of those things that motivates you to do these different behaviors even if the response isn't accurate."

With that being said, some anxiety can also motivate you to do the right thing during a threat such as coronavirus, Dillard noted. "Maybe you will wash your hands better, or eat better and exercise to help stay healthier."

The basis for these scenarios lies in how humans tend to be wired when it comes to risk perception, Dillard said.

"What we know from our research is that people think about their risk in terms of their vulnerability. They don't think about it in terms of knowledge," Dillard explained. "The constant coverage, reports on the number of deaths, really ramps up that vulnerability, that perceived risk."

That is why health psychology researchers such as Dillard know that the framing of information — such as news coverage that overly focuses on who is dying versus the survival rate — plays an important role in how people will react.

Another reason why this outbreak is so unsettling is because the virus is a new one, Dillard said. Experts are frantically studying the pathogen, but the reality is they're still learning about it. And uncertainty is also a big factor in risk perception and subsequent anxiety.

So how best to assess the coronavirus risk? Dillard urges people to engage in mindfulness. Learn how to recognize your anxiety, especially if you know it tends to put you into overdrive. Once you acknowledge it, you can take steps to quell it and then process information in a beneficial way. 

Keep in mind that those sharing information widely — experts, those in the media — also are not invulnerable to the same kinds of emotions affecting the general public. Those biases can seep in without them knowing it, Dillard said. It is helpful to take that potential influence into account when hearing what they have to say.

This time is also a chance for teachable moments such as ways to mitigate the threat of viruses through good hygiene and better self-care, Dillard said.

"And if you want to learn more about this, read lots of different sources, not just one story, and engage your critical thinking skills," she said.

For updates on the university's response to COVID-19, visit gvsu.edu/coronavirus.