Using the COVID-19 pandemic as an example of an existential threat, we conducted a nationwide survey in March 2020 asking 445 Americans about their hopes and fears, their opinions about the coronavirus pandemic, and their attitudes for getting through the public health crisis. In the present research, we examine the coronavirus pandemic as a complex problem and explore its effects on respondents’ levels of optimism to resolve the public health crisis. While much existing research examines the influence of risk perception on optimism, we specifically measure how respondents’ levels of empathy and trust affect social resilience and relate to hopes and fears for their personal health and public health in the United States. Specifically, we examine respondents’ levels of trust in government and their neighbors as well as their levels of empathy, alienation, and social isolation. Our research confirmed the importance of empathy to counter the spread of the virus while preventing economic collapse. In addition, we found that relational factors such as alienation and trust affect individuals’ levels of optimism or pessimism for getting through the public health crisis.

中文翻译：

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乐观与社会适应力：COVID-19时代的社会孤立，无意义，信任和同理心

我们以COVID-19大流行为例，说明了存在的威胁，我们于2020年3月进行了一项全国性调查，向445名美国人询问了他们的希望和恐惧，对冠状病毒大流行的看法以及对度过公共卫生危机的态度。在本研究中，我们将冠状病毒大流行视为一个复杂问题，并探讨其对受访者解决公共卫生危机的乐观程度的影响。尽管现有的许多研究都检验了风险感知对乐观的影响，但我们具体衡量的是受访者的同情和信任水平如何影响社会适应力，并与他们对美国个人健康和公共健康的希望和恐惧联系在一起。具体来说，我们研究了受访者对政府及其邻居的信任程度以及同情心的程度，疏远和社会孤立。我们的研究证实了移情在防止经济崩溃的同时应对病毒传播的重要性。此外，我们发现诸如疏离和信任之类的关系因素会影响个人应对公共卫生危机的乐观或悲观程度。