Abstract

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and its worldwide spread has an unprecedented impact on many people's daily life. As an external crisis event that is not going to end any time soon, will COVID-19 affect people’s risk judgment towards other risk items in daily life? The present study addresses this gap by examining the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on judgments of risk and benefit, and further exploring the underlying mechanisms. Three hundred and forty-nine participants were recruited and divided into two groups based on whether they were severely affected or mildly affected by COVID-19. The results showed that the severely affected group (vs. the mildly affected group) gave higher judgments of risk and lower judgments of benefit towards risk items such as “air travel” and “nuclear power plant,” and these effects were mediated by the COVID-19-induced negative emotions (fear and anxiety). This study suggests that the adverse effects brought from one external crisis event (e.g., the current COVID-19 pandemic) will spill over and interfere with the judgment of the decision-maker on other routine matters through negative emotions.

摘要

2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）的爆发及其在全球的传播对许多人的日常生活产生了前所未有的影响。作为不会在短期内结束的外部危机事件，COVID-19是否会影响人们对日常生活中其他风险项目的风险判断？本研究通过检查COVID-19大流行对风险和收益判断的影响并进一步探索其潜在机制来解决这一差距。招募了349名参与者，根据他们是否受到COVID-19的严重影响或轻微影响分为两组。结果表明，重灾组（轻灾组）对“航空旅行”和“核电站”等风险项目的风险判断较高，对利益的判断较低，”，而这些影响是由COVID-19引起的负面情绪（恐惧和焦虑）介导的。这项研究表明，一次外部危机事件（例如，当前的COVID-19大流行）带来的不利影响将蔓延并通过负面情绪干扰决策者对其他日常事务的判断。