https://doi.org/10.24839/2325-7342.JN28.3.219
Risk Perceptions, Health Attitudes, and Individual Differences During the COVID-19 Pandemic Madison Linden1, Abbey Sears2, and Michelle Singer Foust*2 1 Department of Psychology, Cleveland State University 2 Department of Psychology, Lorain County Community College
ABSTRACT. Throughout the last several years, there have been varying responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study (N = 211) explored individual differences (i.e., health anxiety, education, and age) as correlates of COVID-19 risk perceptions, the relationship of these risk perceptions with attitudes toward cautionary behaviors, such as masking and vaccination, and examined how political beliefs—specifically liberalism—influenced those relationships to better understand the varying responses to the pandemic and how certain demographic groups differ in their COVID-19 risk perceptions. COVID-19 risk perception had significant positive correlations with health anxiety (r = .37, p < .001), education (r = .21, p = .003), attitude toward masking (r = .40, p < .001), attitude toward the COVID-19 vaccination (r = .27, p < .001), and liberalism (r = .36, p< .001), but not age. Liberalism moderated the relationship between COVID-19 risk perceptions and attitude toward masking (p = .02, f 2 = .02) and the relationship between COVID-19 risk perceptions and attitude toward vaccination (p = .02, f 2 = .02). Lastly, regarding demographic group differences, we found that COVID-19 risk perceptions differed by age (p = .04, d = 0.24) and gender (p < .001, d = 0.50), but not by education. Results support previous research and provide new insights regarding perceived COVID-19 risk and attitudes toward cautionary behaviors, stressing the impact of individual differences on responses to public health emergencies such as COVID-19. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.
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Keywords: COVID-19, risk perception, cautionary attitudes, health behaviors, individual differences
I FALL 2023 PSI CHI JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH
n March 2020, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic caused by the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19) prompting a lockdown in the United States during which many Americans were required to stay home and refrain from unnecessary contact with others. The COVID-19 virus poses physical threats due to its contagious nature along with psychological threats due to its potential to provoke fear and distress (Courtney et al., 2020). Throughout the pandemic, a wide variety of
responses have been witnessed among different groups of individuals. Given the breadth of responses to the pandemic that have been seen and the importance of understanding how psychological factors impact health behaviors, it is important to examine the factors that impact these responses and behaviors and how they vary in different groups. Perhaps one of the most important factors to consider is individual risk perception. The threat of the
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*Faculty mentor
