{"id":67613,"date":"2020-08-18T14:14:13","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T18:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=67613"},"modified":"2020-08-18T14:22:24","modified_gmt":"2020-08-18T18:22:24","slug":"people-with-covid-19-lie-about-symptoms-distancing-more-than-non-infected-says-brock-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2020\/08\/people-with-covid-19-lie-about-symptoms-distancing-more-than-non-infected-says-brock-research\/","title":{"rendered":"People with COVID-19 often lie about symptoms and distancing, says Brock research"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>People living in the United States who believe, or know, they are COVID-19 positive are more likely to lie about their physical distancing practices when compared to people who believe they are free of the virus, new Brock University research has found.<\/p>\n<p>Although rates of lie-telling are fairly high, concealment drops in older populations and among those who are community-oriented, says the Brock study \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/1359105320951603\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dishonesty during a pandemic: The concealment of COVID-19 information<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis study highlights the difficulties in trying to accurately track and prevent the spread of the virus,\u201d says PhD student Alison O\u2019Connor, who co-authored the study with her supervisor, Associate Professor of Psychology Angela Evans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn accurately tracking COVID experiences and COVID rates during the pandemic, we\u2019re relying on people honestly disclosing this information,\u201d O\u2019Connor says.<\/p>\n<p>Participating in the research were 451 adults ages 20 to 82 years living in the U.S. Most identified as having a post-secondary education.<\/p>\n<p>Through an online questionnaire, O\u2019Connor and Evans asked participants about their physical distancing practices, COVID-19 symptoms and status, whether they\u2019ve been instructed to quarantine, and their moral evaluations of others\u2019 COVID-19 concealment.<\/p>\n<p>Participants were asked a series of questions to determine if they had concealed any of their COVID-19 behaviours. They also completed the Communal Orientation Scale to measure the extent to which they believe that they should help others and that others\u2019 needs are important.<\/p>\n<p>Results include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>34 per cent of COVID-19 positive participants had denied having symptoms when asked by others; 55 per cent reported some level of concealment of their symptoms<\/li>\n<li>25 per cent of participants reported some level of concealment of their physical distancing practices; those with COVID-19 had higher physical distancing concealment<\/li>\n<li>53 per cent of COVID-19 positive participants denied needing to quarantine when asked by others<\/li>\n<li>those who concealed their own COVID-19 status and behaviours were less critical of others for doing so<\/li>\n<li>females were more readily disclosing health symptoms during this pandemic compared to males<\/li>\n<li>older adults and those who scored higher on the Communal Orientation Scale were more honest about their COVID-19 status and behaviours<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>O\u2019Connor says people may tell \u201chealth-related lies\u201d such as what the research has uncovered to avoid stigma, judgement and social repercussions, especially if they haven\u2019t followed COVID-19 protocols.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt can be hard to disclose health information, especially during this uncertain time,\u201d she says. \u201cSometimes, psychologically we may feel safer to conceal or lie about something to protect ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Connor says she hopes the research will lead to discussions and programs that will support people in disclosing their sensitive health information and overcoming anxieties in doing so. This could extend beyond COVID-19 to other physical and mental health conditions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s important to not necessarily blame people who are concealing this information, but to understand the barriers that are there from preventing them from telling the truth,\u201d says O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n<p>Although a similar study hasn\u2019t yet been conducted in Canada, she expects \u201cthere would be a similar pattern of lie-telling among Canadians.<\/p>\n<p>Evans says that, given their research finding that community-oriented people tend to lie less about their COVID-19 experiences, \u201cit\u2019s possible that governments and campaigns promoting togetherness and collectivity would have lower lie-telling rates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAn important next step may be to explore the effect of different pandemic procedures on disclosures to help us to better understand potential differences in lie-telling across countries,\u201d says O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n<p>The research, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), was published August 17 in the <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/1359105320951603\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Journal of Health Psychology<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People living in the United States who believe, or know, they are COVID-19 positive are more likely to lie about their physical distancing practices when compared to people who believe they are free of the virus, new Brock University research has found.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":67614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,3319,4052,55,37,1,5],"tags":[8271,4020,8791,9358,546,522,9359,3325,9357,6725,8830,4790],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67613"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67613"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67617,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67613\/revisions\/67617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}