硕士研究生王露有关“The better you feel, the harder you fall”: Health perception biases and mental health among Chinese adults during the COVID-19 pandemic的合作研究被China Economic Review (JCR Q1, IF=4.227)接收。该研究是与德国霍恩海姆大学Alfonso Sousa-Poza教授、美国康奈尔大学Nicolas Ziebarth教授、意大利博洛尼亚大学Davide Dragone教授和西南财经大学卢海阳副教授的合作研究。该研究首次从理论和实证两个层面综合探讨了新冠疫情背景下相对健康认知偏误对我国成年人心理健康的影响。

Abstract

The health risks of the current COVID-19 pandemic, together with the drastic mitigation measures taken in many affected nations, pose an obvious threat to public mental health. The social science literature has already established a clear link between mental health and sociodemographic as well as economic factors; at the same time, a growing number of studies investigate the role of biased risk perceptions. To assess this role in the context of COVID-19, this study first implements survey-based measures of health perception biases among Chinese adults during the pandemic. Then, it analyzes their relation to three mental health outcomes: life satisfaction, happiness, and depression (as measured by the CES−D). We show that the health overconfidence displayed by approximately 30% of the survey respondents is a clear risk factor for mental health problems; it is a statistically significant predictor of depression and low levels of happiness and life satisfaction. We also document that these effects are stronger in regions that experienced higher numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths. Our results also offer clear guidelines for the implementation of effective interventions to temper health overconfidence, particularly in uncontrollable situations like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Weblink: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2021.101708.