Niemi Laura, Kniffin Kevin M, Doris John M
Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States.
Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States.
Front Psychol. 2021 May 7;12:668518. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.668518. eCollection 2021.
Messaging from U.S. authorities about COVID-19 has been widely divergent. This research aims to clarify popular perceptions of the COVID-19 threat and its effects on victims. In four studies with over 4,100 U.S. participants, we consistently found that people perceive the threat of COVID-19 to be substantially greater than that of several other causes of death to which it has recently been compared, including the seasonal flu and automobile accidents. Participants were less willing to help COVID-19 victims, who they considered riskier to help, more contaminated, and more responsible for their condition. Additionally, politics and demographic factors predicted attitudes about victims of COVID-19 above and beyond moral values; whereas attitudes about the other kinds of victims were primarily predicted by moral values. The results indicate that people perceive COVID-19 as an exceptionally severe disease threat, and despite prosocial inclinations, do not feel safe offering assistance to COVID-19 sufferers. This research has urgent applied significance: the findings are relevant to public health efforts and related marketing campaigns working to address extended damage to society and the economy from the pandemic. In particular, efforts to educate the public about the health impacts of COVID-19, encourage compliance with testing protocols and contact tracing, and support safe, prosocial decision-making and risk assessment, will all benefit from awareness of these findings. The results also suggest approaches, such as engaging people's stable values rather than their politicized perspectives on COVID-19, that may reduce stigma and promote cooperation in response to pandemic threats.
美国当局发布的关于新冠疫情的信息存在很大差异。这项研究旨在厘清公众对新冠疫情威胁及其对受害者影响的认知。在四项涉及4100多名美国参与者的研究中，我们始终发现，人们认为新冠疫情的威胁比最近与之比较的其他几种死因要大得多，包括季节性流感和汽车事故。参与者不太愿意帮助新冠疫情受害者，他们认为帮助这些受害者风险更大、更容易被感染，而且受害者对自身状况负有更大责任。此外，政治和人口因素比道德价值观更能预测对新冠疫情受害者的态度；而对其他类型受害者的态度主要由道德价值观预测。结果表明，人们将新冠疫情视为一种极其严重的疾病威胁，尽管有亲社会倾向，但对向新冠疫情患者提供援助仍感到不安全。这项研究具有紧迫的应用意义：研究结果与公共卫生工作以及旨在应对疫情对社会和经济造成的长期损害的相关营销活动相关。特别是，向公众宣传新冠疫情对健康的影响、鼓励遵守检测协议和接触者追踪、支持安全的亲社会决策和风险评估等努力，都将受益于对这些研究结果的认识。研究结果还提出了一些方法，比如引导人们基于稳定的价值观而非对新冠疫情的政治化观点，这可能会减少污名化并促进应对疫情威胁时的合作。
