Time to Worry? Comparative Biases and Health-Related Behaviors in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Given that unrealistic optimism and the better-than-average effect were especially strong during COVID-19, one might ask about the results of these illusions: while being especially helpful in fear, stress, and anxiety reduction (unrealistic optimism) and maintaining high self-perception (better than average), it is possible that these illusions are helpful in health prevention.In this chapter we show that unrealistic optimism in particular backfires in the long run: people are not safeguarding their health and instead are exposing themselves to even greater dangers.In light of this, we are moving toward the goal of this book: focusing attention on biased perceptions of the social world during (upcoming) pandemics. These perceptions may persevere much longer and lead to the deaths of more people due to the widespread social virus of inaccurate judgments of risks stemming from global health risks.