Actively thinking of one's future as an older individual could increase perceived risk and risk aversion. This could be particularly relevant for COVID-19, if we consider the common representation of the risk of being infected by COVID-19 as associated with being older. Increased perceived risk could bear consequences on the adoption of preventive behaviours. Thus, we investigated whether increasing the salience of individuals' future as an older adult would impact on their perceived risk for COVID-19 and medical conditions varying for age-relatedness. One hundred and forty-four Italian adults (M_age = 27.72, range: 18–56) were randomly assigned to either a future as older adult thinking or control condition. Perceived risk for COVID-19 and other strongly, and weakly age-related medical conditions during the lifetime was measured. Results showed that thinking about the future as an older adult increased perceived risk for strongly and weakly age-related diseases, but not for COVID-19. The salience of the COVID-19 outbreak may have raised the perceived risks in both experimental conditions, making the manipulation ineffective. In conclusion, manipulating future-oriented thinking might be a successful communication strategy to increase people's perceived risk of common diseases, but it might not work for highly salient pathologies such as COVID-19.

中文翻译：

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将未来视为老年人会增加与年龄有关的疾病的感知风险，但不会增加 COVID-19 的风险

作为老年人积极思考自己的未来可能会增加感知风险和风险厌恶。如果我们考虑到被 COVID-19 感染的风险的普遍表现与年龄相关，这可能与 COVID-19 尤其相关。增加的感知风险可能会对采取预防行为产生影响。因此，我们调查了增加个人作为老年人的未来的重要性是否会影响他们对 COVID-19 的感知风险以及因年龄相关而变化的医疗条件。一百四十四名意大利成年人（M_年龄 = 27.72，范围：18-56）被随机分配到未来作为老年人思维或控制条件。测量了一生中对 COVID-19 和其他与年龄相关的强烈和较弱的医疗状况的感知风险。结果表明，以老年人的身份思考未来会增加患强和弱年龄相关疾病的风险，但不会增加 COVID-19 的风险。COVID-19 爆发的显着性可能提高了两种实验条件下的感知风险，使操纵无效。总之，操纵面向未来的思维可能是一种成功的沟通策略，可以增加人们对常见疾病的感知风险，但它可能不适用于 COVID-19 等高度突出的疾病。