Nursing

Biology

Public health

Isolation (microbiology)

Social psychology

Social group

Sociocultural evolution

Acoustics

Anthropology

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Physics

Social isolation

Identity (music)

Social identity theory

Psychology

Political science

Psychotherapist

Microbiology

Infectious disease (medical specialty)

Sociology

Medicine

Disconnection

Social distance

Disease

Pathology

Social Psychological and Personality Science

COVID-19 threatens lives, livelihoods, and civic institutions. Although restrictive public health behaviors such as social distancing help manage its impact, these behaviors can further sever our connections to people and institutions that affirm our identities. Three studies ( N = 1,195) validated a brief 10-item COVID-19 Threat Scale that assesses (1) realistic threats to physical or financial safety and (2) symbolic threats to one’s sociocultural identity. Studies reveal that both realistic and symbolic threats predict higher distress and lower well-being and demonstrate convergent validity with other measures of threat sensitivity. Importantly, the two kinds of threats diverge in their relationship to restrictive public health behaviors: Realistic threat predicted greater self-reported adherence, whereas symbolic threat predicted less self-reported adherence to social disconnection behaviors. Symbolic threat also predicted using creative ways to affirm identity even in isolation. Our findings highlight how social psychological theory can be leveraged to understand and predict people’s behavior in pandemics.

Measuring Realistic and Symbolic Threats of COVID-19 and Their Unique Impacts on Well-Being and Adherence to Public Health Behaviors