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Publication
Is my risk lower than yours? The role of compared risk, illness perceptions, and self-efficacy as determinants of perceived risk for COVID-19
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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Risk perception is a psychological construct influenced by the available information
about specific illnesses or conditions and several psychosocial variables. In the
context of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to understand people´s perceptions about the illness and their subsequent behaviour. In the present study we aimed
to assess risk and illness perceptions about COVID-19 at the beginning of the
pandemic in a community sample and to assess whether illness perception dimensions, dispositional optimism, compared risk and perceived self-efficacy are predictors of individual risk perception for COVID-19. The participants were 549
Portuguese adults not infected by COVID-19 who completed an online survey. Our
findings showed that individual and compared risk perceptions about COVID-19
were high as well as concern, negative emotional representation, and perceived
consequences. The predictive model showed that 54% of the variance of the perceived individual risk was explained by compared risk, followed by concern, emotional representation, and self-efficacy. These findings highlight the importance of
comparative risk (unrealistic comparative optimism) in the formation of individual
risk perception. Social comparison can be an important factor for risk perception and
the adoption of protective behaviours for COVID-19.
Description
Keywords
Risk perception Illness perception Self-efficacy Unrealistic comparative optimism COVID-19
Citation
Figueiras, M. J., Dias Neto, D., Maroco, J., & Kern de Castro, E. (2022). Is my risk lower than yours? The role of compared risk, illness perceptions, and self-efficacy as determinants of perceived risk for COVID-19. Health, Risk & Society, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698575.2022.2031911
Publisher
Routledge