How to Manage Your Fear During the Coronavirus

Fear of the virus may be more infectious than the virus itself

di Tom Jacobs

It can harm people’s health and weaken entire societies. Thanks to modern technology, it can spread rapidly around the world. And there is no effective vaccine.

I’m not referring to COVID-19, although the coronavirus can serve as its catalyst. Rather, an infectious agent that is as old as civilization itself and is rapidly reaching epidemic proportions: fear.

Fear can take both a physical and psychological toll. It thrives in an atmosphere of distrust and confusion. As Franklin Roosevelt famously remarked, as he began his Depression-era presidency, fear needs to be identified and confronted.

“The fear of the virus may spread faster than the virus itself,” says Norbert Schwarz, a provost professor of psychology and marketing at the University of Southern California. “Unfortunately, that fear will also spread to totally unrelated domains of life. A decade ago, the threat of swine flu not only increased Americans’ concern about getting the flu — it also increased the perceived risk of getting a heart attack, dying in an accident, or being the victim of crime.”

“Once the world feels like a dangerous place, where bad things can happen any moment, fear knows few limits.”

Fear of new phenomena — such as this previously unknown virus — is especially potent, according to E. Scott Geller, a behavioral psychologist and alumni distinguished professor at Virginia Tech. “Everywhere you go, people are talking about it,” he says. “As we communicate about it, we’re sharing our uncertainty — and uncertainty is scary.”

“Statistically, we lose more lives on the highway than in most epidemics, but on the highway, we’re in control,” says Geller. “We say to ourselves, ‘That’s not going to happen to me because I know how to prevent it.’ But with this virus, we don’t know that. So the more we hear about it, the scarier it feels.”

James Dillard of Penn State, an expert in communication, describes a similar dynamic: “Every time somebody mentions the coronavirus to you, you recall everything you read about it and the feelings you experienced at the time.” He says, “So your fear is triggered again.”

“Once the world feels like a dangerous place, where bad things can happen any moment, fear knows few limits.”

That’s problematic for several reasons. Chronic stress not only results in long-term health consequences, but it can prompt people to make unwise choices, such as buying up masks that health care workers need or making unnecessary visits to already-overburdened hospitals or clinics.

Traditionally, fear spreads primarily through person-to-person contact — including in nonverbal ways. As a 2015 study reported, research has demonstrated that exposure to body odors from frightened individuals elicits fear in others. The smell of fear is a real phenomenon.

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