All over the world, thousands of people have now been infected with the coronavirus. China has seen the highest number of cases thus far, but the virus has also struck in Italy, France, the US, Canada, and Japan. Headlines such as “Coronavirus: how worried should we be?”, and “Corona death toll rises” reflect people’s growing fear of the virus. But is that fear justified? It’s still difficult to answer that question in the short term, given that the disease is a new one. But there’s nothing new about the rampant fear. The cause of this fear lies in various psychological heuristics (underlying principles that influence the choices people make).
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