Epidemic Psychology in COVID-19

Description

In a new paper published in the journal Nature, a group of researchers find that Strong’s ideas were correct—and may put us into a Hobbesian war of all against all, if we’re not careful. According to an analysis of tweets, the pandemic has thrown our emotions into a cycle of avoidance, fear, and acceptance. In total, what the researchers offer is a way to quantify the human psychological response to the pandemic through language. Perhaps one day, this social data mining framework may be used to understand psychological epidemics and, through targeted public health campaigns, drive people en masse toward more positive outcomes.