Can Coping With COVID Make Things Worse?

Throughout the COVID pandemic, people have tried many things to help cope with their emotions and reduce the fear they feel. But that may not always be a good thing. If fear can motivate positive health behaviors, perhaps simple things like washing your hands, then could doing away with fear lead to less healthy behaviors? And, if so, are there better ways to cope with the current pandemic? To shed some light on this topic, we interview Brett Ford with the University of Toronto, who has published a paper in the journal Psychological Science on “Coping with Health Threats.”