COVID-19 makes Americans stupid: Research shows worry about coronavirus leads to people making the wrong choice, performing poorly on simple cognitive tests, and misrepresenting risks.
A new study among Americans found that those worried about the COVID-19 pandemic are slower to process information, retain information less quickly, and are more likely to overestimate negative odds than their less anxious counterparts.
According to the Daily Mail, in a study conducted by McGill University and the Montreal Neurological Institute Hospital, 1,500 Americans were interviewed online from April to June 2020. However, one can easily assume that the findings of the researchers apply to residents of other countries, and not just the United States.
The study authors concluded that people who are more worried about the coronavirus and its consequences perform worse on information processing tests and have a skewed understanding of risk levels.
Despite the concern, the researchers found that people interviewed in June 2020 – by the time governments took tight lockdowns and the news coverage of the pandemic was constant – performed worse than pre-pandemic groups and exhibited “slower processing , lower accuracy of task switching, and were more sensitive to risk. “
“The basic cognitive abilities measured here are critical to healthy daily living and decision making,” said study author and graduate student at McGill University, Kevin da Silva Castaneira. “The anxiety disorders observed here suggest that in times of high stress, such as a global pandemic, our ability to think, plan and assess risks changes. Understanding these changes is critical because stress management often depends on these abilities. ”
The study was published in the open access journal PLOS ONE. Participants were asked to rate their level of anxiety and take an information processing test, in which they had to match pairs of numbers and symbols according to a fixed rule.
To measure risk preferences, the researchers used the “classic economic choice problem,” in which participants had to make a series of hypothetical choices between a “certain” option, such as winning $ 75, and a “risky” option, such as a 25 percent chance of winning. $ 0 and 75% chance to win $ 100.
“Individuals reporting heightened pandemic concerns were found to be more sensitive to the reported level of risk,” the authors say. “As with cognitive performance analysis, this relationship between sensitivity to outcome probabilities and individual anxiety persisted after adjusting for demographic variables and the perceived risk of COVID-19 infection.”
The study added: “However, we were unable to find any evidence that greater anxiety is associated with risk aversion or loss aversion. Instead, we found that pandemic anxiety predetermines the tendency for people to distort the described levels of risk: underestimate probabilities and overestimate unlikely probabilities, regardless of their valence. “
The authors hypothesized that more anxious respondents may be more sensitive to risk because they are more likely to seek information, leading to more exposure to the media, which often discusses risk.
The data collected during the pandemic was compared with the results of the same tests conducted by different people before the pandemic.
As the pandemic developed, participants in the third wave – around June 2020 – showed lower processing speed, less ability to maintain goals, and were more sensitive to risk than participants in the first wave, according to researchers at McGill University.
According to research, persistent disruption to task performance may reflect the effects of prolonged (i.e., chronic) exposure to stress or changing sources of anxiety.
The study authors note that previous reports have said that anxiety impairs executive functioning and crowds out cognitive resources, but can also temporarily improve it.
“The effects of stress and anxiety on cognitive function are well known, but usually studied in a laboratory setting,” said study author Dr. Madeleine Sharp, a researcher and neurologist at the Montreal Neurological Institute Hospital. “Here we were able to expand on these results by examining the effect of real stressors in a large sample. An important direction in the future will be to explore why some people are more sensitive to stress than others, and to identify coping strategies that help defend against the effects of stress. ”
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