Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic and its profound global effects may be changing the way we think about illness. In summer 2020, 120 American adults were asked to diagnose symptoms of COVID-19, a cold, and cancer, and to answer questions related to the diagnosis, treatment, prevention, time-course, and transmission of each disease. Results showed that participants were more likely to correctly diagnose COVID-19 (91% accuracy) compared to a cold (58% accuracy) or cancer (52% accuracy). We also found that 7% of participants misdiagnosed cold symptoms as COVID-19, and, interestingly, over twice as many participants (16%) misdiagnosed symptoms of cancer as COVID-19. Our findings suggest a distinct mental model for COVID-19 compared to other illnesses. Further, the prevalence of COVID-19 in everyday discourse—especially early in the pandemic—may lead to biased responding, similar to errors in medical diagnosis that result from physicians’ expertise. We also discuss how the focus of public-health messaging on prevention of COVID-19 might contribute to participants’ mental models.
Subject
Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Reference25 articles.
1. Pandemic Fatigue: Facing the Body’s Inexorable Demands in the Time of COVID-19
2. More than 1 Million Americans Were Diagnosed with COVID over the Long Holiday Weekend
https://www.npr.org/2022/01/04/1070218466/1-million-us-covid-cases-omicron-surge
3. Timeline: How Trump has Downplayed the Coronavirus Pandemic
https://www.npr.org/sections/latest-updates-trump-covid-19-results/2020/10/02/919432383/how-trump-has-downplayed-the-coronavirus-pandemic
4. Mounting Evidence Suggests Coronavirus Is Airborne—But Health Advice Has Not Caught Up
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02058-1