Coronavirus and Its Global Sweep Stokes Fear Over Facts. Experts Say It’s Unlikely to Produce ‘Apocalyptic Scenario’

Coronavirus is in the global spotlight, but a secondary character in this unfolding drama threatens to upstage the grim protagonist: fear.

Chalk that up to what it means to be human. Animals have a fight-or-flight response to real and present danger. We have that maddening ability to go a step beyond and imagine what isn’t there.

“Humans often can develop a robust and pathological fear of things that might not happen, to create realities that don’t exist,” says Elizabeth Phelps, Harvard University’s Pershing Square professor of human neuroscience. “So yes, of course you can overdo it.”

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A run on supplies may cue the brain’s amygdala, which  psychologists call the headquarters of our fear factory. A bucket of cold water can come in the form of calm and reliable doses of information.

“Communications are most helpful to us humans when they’re explicit, so if you saw the risk is low, explain how low,” says Carnegie Mellon University professor Baruch Fischhoff, former president of an academic organization called the Society for Judgment and Decision Making.

Fischhoff says one way to keep fear in check is to narrow your information stream to just-the-facts sources such as state medical agencies and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On its website, the CDC urges “everyday preventive” actions such as hand-washing and disinfecting surfaces. 

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