At the onset of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) global pandemic, our interdisciplinary team hypothesized that a mathematical misconception-whole number bias (WNB)-contributed to beliefs that COVID-19 was less fatal than the flu. We created a brief online educational intervention for adults, leveraging evidence-based cognitive science research, to promote accurate understanding of rational numbers related to COVID-19. Participants from a Qualtrics panel (N = 1,297; 75% White) were randomly assigned to an intervention or control condition, solved health-related math problems, and subsequently completed 10 days of daily diaries in which health cognitions and affect were assessed. Participants who engaged with the intervention, relative to those in the control condition, were more accurate and less likely to explicitly mention WNB errors in their strategy reports as they solved COVID-19-related math problems. Math anxiety was positively associated with risk perceptions, worry, and negative affect immediately after the intervention and across the daily diaries. These results extend the benefits of worked examples in a practically relevant domain. Ameliorating WNB errors could not only help people think more accurately about COVID-19 statistics expressed as rational numbers, but also about novel future health crises, or any other context that involves information expressed as rational numbers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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数学很重要：在推理 COVID-19 时，一种新颖、简短的教育干预可减少整数偏差。

在冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 全球大流行开始时，我们的跨学科团队假设数学上的误解——整数偏差 (WNB)——导致人们认为 COVID-19 的致命性低于流感。我们利用循证认知科学研究为成人创建了一个简短的在线教育干预，以促进对与 COVID-19 相关的有理数的准确理解。来自 Qualtrics 小组的参与者（N = 1,297；75% 白人）被随机分配到干预或控制条件，解决与健康相关的数学问题，随后完成 10 天的日常日记，评估健康认知和影响。参与干预的参与者，相对于处于控制状态的参与者，在解决与 COVID-19 相关的数学问题时，他们的策略报告中更准确且不太可能明确提及 WNB 错误。数学焦虑与干预后立即和日常日记中的风险感知、担忧和负面影响呈正相关。这些结果扩展了实际相关领域中工作示例的好处。改善 WNB 错误不仅可以帮助人们更准确地思考以有理数表示的 COVID-19 统计数据，还可以帮助人们更准确地思考未来新的健康危机或任何其他涉及以有理数表示的信息的背景。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2022 APA，保留所有权利）。干预后立即产生负面影响并贯穿日常日记。这些结果扩展了实际相关领域中工作示例的好处。改善 WNB 错误不仅可以帮助人们更准确地思考以有理数表示的 COVID-19 统计数据，还可以帮助人们更准确地思考未来新的健康危机或任何其他涉及以有理数表示的信息的背景。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2022 APA，保留所有权利）。干预后立即产生负面影响并贯穿日常日记。这些结果扩展了实际相关领域中工作示例的好处。改善 WNB 错误不仅可以帮助人们更准确地思考以有理数表示的 COVID-19 统计数据，还可以帮助人们更准确地思考未来新的健康危机或任何其他涉及以有理数表示的信息的背景。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2022 APA，保留所有权利）。或任何其他涉及以有理数表示的信息的上下文。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2022 APA，保留所有权利）。或任何其他涉及以有理数表示的信息的上下文。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2022 APA，保留所有权利）。