#1: Facts. Just the facts.

First, it’s important to be sensitive to the type of information you’re exposed to. And that doesn’t mean just paying attention to credible news sources (although that’s a good start). More than that, it’s about arming yourself with the actual numbers and data so that you can reach your own conclusions regarding the severity of the threat. For instance, it may provide some comfort to know that the worldwide death total is, at present, less than 8,000 — still much lower than the number of people who die each year from the flu. Worldometers.info is a good place to follow the facts, as are the statistics provided by the World Health Organization and the CDC.

#2: Use consensus as a guidepost.

The great British statistician, Sir Francis Galton, was famous for many things. He discovered the concept of correlation. He popularized the idea of “regression to the mean.” He was also Charles Darwin’s half-cousin.

One of his observations, however, is particularly relevant to the Coronavirus pandemic. It occurred in 1906, when he was at a county fair and witnessed a competition in which 800 people attempted to guess the weight of an ox. Being a man of statistics, Galton tested how accurate people were in their guesses. He found that, while any single person’s guess might not have been all that accurate, the average of all 800 guesses (1,197 pounds, to be precise) was a mere pound shy of the correct answer (1,198 pounds).

Galton took this as a sign that a natural wisdom emerges as more predictions, expectations, and viewpoints are taken into account. It’s how markets work. So, when it comes to Coronavirus, try not to be unduly swayed by any one voice or analysis. Rather, listen to all voices and perspectives, and know that the truth will most likely be found in the middle.



#3: Don’t overthink it.

Many of you are probably familiar with “medical school syndrome” — the tendency for medical students to start believing they have the illness they are studying. This syndrome provides a useful window into the perils of becoming overly engrossed in a given topic, especially when it relates to one’s health and well-being. There’s a real danger in over-educating yourself on Coronavirus and all of its possible implications. Psychology studies have shown, for instance, that fixating on a given problem can lead to inferior decisions. If the movie A Beautiful Mind taught us anything, it’s that a fixated mind is a fertile ground for conspiracy theories to take root.

Sound judgments and decisions, on the other hand, are often made by putting time and space in between you and a given problem context. In the case of Coronavirus, disconnecting from the news might help quiet the mental chatter and give you the perspective needed to decide how best to protect yourself.

#4: Trust in probabilities.

For whatever reason, some people are more comfortable with ambiguity than others. Psychologists refer to this personality trait as “tolerance for ambiguity” — and it has been shown to predict a number of real-world outcomes. People who exhibit a higher tolerance for ambiguity, for instance, worry less, are more open to new experiences, and tend to perform better in business settings.

In times like these, it’s important for everyone — especially those who are less tolerant of ambiguity — to understand that it’s okay to feel a certain degree of uncertainty over Coronavirus. The truth is that we are still in the early stages of the fight against COVID-19 and so much remains unknown. It’s best to stay as cognitively flexible as possible as the situation evolves. If you don’t, you run the risk of buying into premature or false explanations for a still-inexplicable phenomenon.


link to this section https://lnkd.in/fyqUw-U#TOC-Best-Practices