The emergence of the new coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) has had a lasting impact on people’s daily lives. As one of the largest social stoppages in human history, the concern and risk perception of the COVID-19 has attracted researchers’ attention and discussion all over the world. However, the research around the COVID-19 mainly focuses on the initial phase of the disease, and more research is needed to integrate the impact of the continuous changes of the COVID-19 on people. In this study, the self-distance of cognitive variables, which are often studied in the field of negative emotion regulation, was used as a starting point to discuss people’s epidemic anxiety and risk perception from the perspective of adaptation, the aim of this study is to provide feasible suggestions for reducing excessive worry and adjusting the level of risk perception in the face of the COVID-19.
This study consisted of two studies: Study one adopted experimental methods, using participants’ worry and risk perception scores after reading about the variant Omicron as indicators, to explore the effect of spontaneous self-distance on epidemic worry and risk perception. Study two manipulated the subjects’ self-distance by manipulating their thought content through different design of instructions. After checking the effectiveness of manipulation, study two used participants’ worry and risk perception scores after reading the materials about the variant Omicron through different instructions, to examine the influence of manipulative self-distance on epidemic worry and risk perception of COVID-19.
And it turns out:
(1) Individuals with remote spontaneous self-distance showed less worry and lower levels of risk perception after reading material about the current status of transmission of the new coronavirus variant Omicron; Individuals with closer spontaneous self-distance showed more concern and higher levels of risk perception after reading material about the current status of transmission of the new coronavirus variant Omicron. Whether negative words were included in the title had no significant effect on individual COVID-19 worry and risk perception.
(2) After reading material on the current status of transmission of the coronavirus variant Omicron, individuals with remote manipulative self-distance showed less worry about the current status of the virus mutation and lower level of risk perception; individuals with near manipulative self-distance showed more worry about the status of the virus mutation and had a higher level of risk perception.
This study demonstrated that self-distancing can effectively reduce the level of individual COVID-19 worry and risk perception, which provides a possible direction for risk management in subsequent public health events.
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