Three Types of Human Behavior in the Face of the Coronavirus
As people come to believe they can bring death and life under control, they begin to take on the responsibility for everything happening around them, and their anxiety starts to climb.[1] This is one way to set what we lived through in 2020 apart from what had happened before. We do not want to believe that a disease has no cure. Even knowing there is no solution leads to a kind of acceptance — but knowing that a solution might exist is what triggers anxiety.
Two definitions were on the agenda for what people were feeling: one is fear, the other is anxiety. Because fear and anxiety produce the same physical symptoms, they are often confused — but it is more accurate to define what people were living through as anxiety. Fear is an emotion we feel toward a specific object or situation; there is a real threat, and the object of fear is clear (the fear could be what a person who has caught the disease, or whose loved one has, actually experiences). Fear is what we feel when we meet a bear in the forest; anxiety is what we feel when we merely consider the possibility of a bear crossing our path — the motivation behind it is uncertainty.
This uncertainty has three very important dimensions. If one or more of these becomes visible or tangible, people’s anxiety eases.[2]
The first is that the virus causing the disease is not visible to the eye. The danger itself is neither visible nor familiar.
The second is the unknowability of the contagious source. The thing carrying the danger is a living being of our own kind (when another species was involved, we used to solve the problem by going as far as mass culling, as with Bird Flu). This carrier — an infected human — could now be anyone around us, even the people we love most; and this is where the uncertainty begins to hurt. Especially in big cities, where people of very different characteristics (ethnicity, religion, nation, language, lifestyle, and so on) come together, this uncertainty grows both in sheer numbers and in the variety of unknowns. Indeed, as in the 14th-century plague in Europe, specific groups can even be placed directly in the crosshairs.
What truly causes anxiety is not having control over the unknown — in other words, a sense of helplessness. Anxiety appears when we feel under threat in uncertain situations, when there is a perception of threat but no real, present danger. When it is unclear what will happen (when the future cannot be foreseen), the thought of not being safe suddenly emerges, and this makes a person feel helpless.
In such a situation, the accessibility of information could be a tool for keeping control and relieving the sense of helplessness. But sensing that there may be far more than the available information (thinking that something is being hidden) and being exposed to misinformation is a huge obstacle to reducing uncertainty — that is, to people feeling as though they hold control.
The moment a person notices the thought of helplessness, they act to take control again — just as we run, that is, take action, when we meet a bear. This is why we buy masks, cologne, dry goods, toilet paper, and so on, and retreat into our homes. Against a threat whose source and self cannot be seen, it is a way of saying, “I am doing something, I can take control.”
Another factor that will heighten our anxieties about the virus is other people’s experiences. Stalin said, “A single death is a tragedy; a thousand is a statistic.” Numbers have no soul, but the stories of those who die (we hope they will not) amplify the effect far more. Experiences make us empathize, and that increases worry.
We should not forget the role of the primitive brain, which shapes the very basis of human behavior.[3] When the primitive brain meets a danger, it takes one of three actions: Freeze, Flight, and Fight. It is possible to shape human behavior toward the present danger on these same three foundations.
- Freeze: Those who do nothing. Who act as if it does not exist and try to carry on with their lives.
- Flight: Those who leave the place they are in, as happened in Italy. Like Cristiano Ronaldo, who rented an island and fled there with his family.
- Fight: Those who, while carrying on with life using products like cologne, treat the virus as an enemy and battle it.
So what can we do to feel better and cope with this problem more effectively? Psychologists offer advice along these lines:
“Stepping away from the environmental influences we are used to, being alone with ourselves, spending higher-quality time with those close to us, and developing new habits we had long wanted to but could not — habits that make us feel valuable — can all become possible. We can see these forced conditions … as an opportunity to ‘rediscover ourselves.'”
In short, making some things more certain (or their becoming certain on their own over time) will ease this mood and sense of helplessness that uncertainty causes, and will increase our sense of control. In this process, we can see the gaps that open up in our routines as opportunities for new experiences, for ourselves and for our loved ones. Whatever you have long wanted to do but could not (reading, writing, painting, baking a cake with your child), now is exactly the time to pull it out of that drawer you thought was full of longings, dust it off, and get started.
Goodjob Human Insight & Strategy
Specialist Psychologist: Lebriz Canpoyraz
Psychologist: Rana Özdeş Kar
Specialist Psychologist: Seda Erduran
Anthropologist: Serhan Ok
[1] Perpetual Euphoria, Pascal Bruckner
[2] Guidance from professional psychology associations
[3] Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow
