UC Davis researchers find COVID-19 paradox: More grim news leads to decreased anxiety

Victoria Hsieh
·2 min read

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have discovered people react less to COVID-19 news as the pandemic progresses.

The researchers in the school’s department of communications found that levels of anxiety rocketed initially at the beginning of the pandemic. However, as the death toll continued to markedly increase and newspapers reported more deaths, overall anxiety flattened out.

The researchers looked at 1465 articles on COVID-19 news and related posts on Twitter over 11 months in 2020 that mentioned COVID-19. They analyzed the body text of the news articles to measure article anxiety and the tweets to measure tweet anxiety.

The final study, “Desensitization to Fear-Inducting COVID-19 Health News on Twitter: Observational Study,” was published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research Infodemiology on July 17.

“While this is certainly a concerning trend, we were not surprised to find that people are becoming desensitized to the impact of scary COVID-19 news. When we frequently experience something scary, we can become less sensitive to it.” said Hannah Stevens, first author and communications PhD student at UC Davis, “Throughout the pandemic, the public has been repeatedly exposed to scary media reports of COVID-19 health risk and deaths. It is not surprising that over time, individuals may be experiencing diminished anxiety ... even in the face of an increasing threat.”

COVID-19 rates are soaring in California again with the new Delta variant. Delta accounts for 83% of sample cases according to the California Department of Public Health and the Center for Disease Control. California’s test positivity rate has increased by over 3 times since July 1.

“I’m worried that if COVID-19 takes another turn for the worse the public may be less inclined to follow recommended health guidelines, for example wearing masks and social distancing,” Stevens told The Sacramento Bee.

Stevens said she hopes the results of the study will reinvigorate conversation around COVID-19 guidelines.

“While our study cannot help re-sensitize the public, I hope that it can be an impetus to get that discussion started. Hopefully, it will help people recognize that just because they’re not feeling acutely anxious doesn’t mean the problem has gone away,” she said.