People concerned about the pandemic tend to make bad choices

A study by McGill University in Canada and the Montreal Neurological Hospital Institute found that those most concerned about the pandemic do not novel coronavirus they tend to give poor risk assessments, in addition to having below average scores on cognitive tests.

The survey, which included the participation of 1,500 people between April and June 2020, identified that the study group has “a slower processing speed, less precision in changing tasks and is more sensitive to risk”, per compared to pre-pandemic levels.

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To achieve this result, the study asked participants to rate their own level of stress caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic. From this setting, each person performed a test to match pairs of numbers and symbols according to a previously established rule.

In order to understand the risk-taking of the study participants, the Canadian teams established a game in which a person could choose to win $ 75 guaranteed or at risk and have a 75% chance of taking $ 100.

After performing this test, the researchers identified a tendency to overestimate the odds of losing and underestimate the odds of winning.

“We found that concerns about the pandemic predicted the tendency of individuals to distort the levels of risk described: underweight the probable probabilities and weigh the improbable probabilities whatever the valence”, the study points out, according to the British portal Daily Mail.

The authors of the research linked the findings to real life, in which those most affected are more susceptible to risk, seeking more information and being exposed to media debates about the novel coronavirus pandemic.

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“The impact of stress and worry on cognitive function is well known, but it is generally studied in the laboratory. [Com este estudo] we were able to extend these results by studying the effects of a real-world stressor in a large sample, ”explains researcher Dr Madeleine Sharp.

According to the study’s authors, the next step for science is to identify coping strategies to help people protect themselves from stress.

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