New research finds gender differences in fear and risk perception during COVID-19

Date:
August 25, 2021
Source:
Virginia Tech
Summary:
New research suggests that men and women worry about the impact of
COVID- 19 in far different ways. For example, men are more likely
to be concerned about financial consequences from COVID-19 while
women report greater fear and more negative expectations about
health-related outcomes.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Research from Virginia Tech suggests that men and women worry about
the impact of COVID-19 in far different ways. For example, men are
more likely to be concerned about financial consequences from COVID-19
while women report greater fear and more negative expectations about health-related outcomes.


==========================================================================
The researchers, Sheryl Ball and Alec Smith, conducted an online survey
in April 2020 to measure emotions, behaviors and expectations connected
to gender and the pandemic.The study was published in Frontiers in
Psychology earlier this month.

"We found that women reported a higher fear of the health risks of
COVID-19 than men. Men expressed more fear about the economic implications
of the pandemic than women," said Smith.

In the initial days of the pandemic, Ball and Smith were interested in
how the COVID-19 pandemic would change people's economic preferences --
things like how willing someone is to take a financial risk or to trust someone. Previous research shows that women are often less willing to
take risks than men.

"The average person is probably less afraid of COVID-19 now than in April 2020," said Ball. "The reason we believe this is that we originally
collected data in the beginning, middle and end of April 2020, and we
found that fear decreased substantially even during that month. We expect
that it has continued to decrease since then." "The big takeaway from
our research is that people have economic as well as health care concerns
about the pandemic," said Smith. "We know that preventative measures like
mask wearing are effective. We think that messages that encourage people
to take these preventative measures might want to emphasize not only
the health consequences and benefits, but also the economic benefits." Professors Sheryl Ball and Alec Smith teach in the Virginia Tech's
Department of Economics, with a focus on behavioral economics.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Virginia_Tech. Note: Content may be
edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Abdelaziz Alsharawy, Ross Spoon, Alec Smith, Sheryl Ball. Gender
Differences in Fear and Risk Perception During the COVID-19
Pandemic.

Frontiers in Psychology, 2021; 12 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.689467 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210825143051.htm

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