![]() And higher risk perceptions were significantly correlated with preventative health behaviours including washing hands, wearing masks, and observing social distancing. But they also had higher risk perceptions if they had more prosocial views – that is, belief in the importance of altruistic action. Unsurprisingly, people perceived higher risk if they had direct experience of the virus. The survey assessed risk perception through an index of measures including asking participants to rate their level of worry about the virus. One study of risk perceptions of Covid-19 in 10 countries frames worry as the emotional component of risk perception. It’s motivating us to ideally prevent the bad thing from happening or at least prepare for it.”Įarly research on the Covid-19 pandemic seems to confirm this. ![]() It’s essentially pointing us towards something that might be coming and it’s drawing our attention there. Sweeny points out that like any emotion, worry has a function. But understanding, curbing and redirecting these can also galvanise change. Climate burnout can inhibit action, and climate anxiety can lead to psychic numbing. This is clear from the range of emotions that come with caring deeply about the climate crisis, for example. Since worry is future-focused, compared to rumination about the past, there’s great potential for it to be adaptive.Īs with the relationship between stress and performance, Watkins says that there appears to be an inverted U-shaped relationship between worry and helpfulness: too little, and you’re not motivated enough too much, and you’re paralysed. And one study found that worry about climate change was the single strongest predictor of support for climate policies (suggesting that it may be more effective for environmentalists to appeal to the public’s worries rather than their fears). It’s been correlated with better academic performance and more attempts to quit smoking. In Australian states prone to wildfires, for instance, researchers have found that constructive worry is associated with wildfire preparedness (as well as being on time). “Worry that has become generalised to lots of different concerns is more likely to be unhelpful and problematic than worry focused on a specific discrete concern,” says Edward Watkins, a clinical psychologist and mood disorder researcher at the University of Exeter.īut at a more moderate, localised level, worry can be useful. Extreme, abstract and automatic worry – which is frequent and hard to control – is associated with generalised anxiety disorder. What separates worry from general concern is both its emotional nature and the fact that it gears people up for change.Įxtreme levels of worry are associated with poorer mental and physical health, for reasons ranging from disrupted sleep to avoidance of cancer screenings. Psychologists studying climate change have described it as an emotional state that often motivates behavioural responses with the aim of reducing a threat. Worry has been defined in both negative and neutral terms. ![]() ![]() One of her surprising findings has been that worrying can be beneficial in a variety of situations, from waiting for exam results to safeguarding health. “Not everybody uses their own life as fodder for research,” she laughs, but she’s found inspiration in her own experiences. ![]() As a health psychologist at the University of California, Riverside, she specialises in understanding worry and stress. She’s struggled for much of her life with anxiety over things she can’t entirely control – including, these days, whether her parents are following social-distancing guidance during the Covid-19 pandemic.Ī constant hum of low-grade worry affects many people, but what’s distinct about Sweeny is that it partly motivated her career choices. “I’m a near-professional worrier,” admits Kate Sweeny ruefully. ![]()
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