In the age of social media, fear of a virus can spread much faster than the virus itself, according to SFI External Professor Joshua Epstein, who also works for the emergency medicine department and directs the Center for Advanced Modeling at Johns Hopkins University.
An article in The Boston Globe asks why just three Ebola cases in the United States have generated widespread anxiety and over-reactions, with a recent poll indicating that half of Americans fear a large Ebola outbreak will take place in the US within the next year. Though influenza is poised to claim an estimated 36,000 Americans lives this year, the vanishing possibility of contracting Ebola looms much larger in the media and the public awareness.
In the article, Epstein explains that surprise and magnitude generate fearful reactions to a greater extent than do statistical probabilities. Because Ebola appeared in the U.S. unexpectedly, and because it’s associated with gruesome symptoms and a high death rate, news of the virus triggers rapid, fearful associations. “We’re wired to transmit fear to each other, and from an evolutionary standpoint, you can see how it would be beneficial to scare us into avoiding those with contagious illnesses,” Epstein says.
The article also notes that when the number of Ebola cases in Sierra Leone and Liberia began to grow at a nonlinear rate, people felt a "lack of control" that might have contributed to irrational fears in the US.
Read the article in The Boston Globe (October 23, 2014)