How Egoicism Is Making the Pandemic Worse

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What prevents people from taking small steps that could ultimately save lives in the pandemic? These 4 psychological responses help explain why.

pandemic, millions of people are taking action to help their neighbors and communities. Health care providers and first responders come most quickly to mind, but many other people are donating their time and money to help those affected by the pandemic, and hundreds of millions of others have changed their lives to limit the spread of the virus, even when doing so is inconvenient for them personally. The pandemic has brought out the best in many, many people.

But we have also seen many examples of people who not only don’t seem to be contributing to the common good but, in fact, are doing things that are directly helping the virus to infect — and perhaps kill — their fellow citizens. We see people who refuse to wear masks , people who make no effort to maintain a safe distance from others, and people who insist on being allowed to congregate in large groups.

If these kinds of precautions required a great deal of time, effort, or money, we could understand why people might resist them. But these actions involve minimal effort and inconvenience, with a rather large potential to limit infection, death, and the economic consequences of the disease. Imagine what the course of the outbreak would have been like if no one, anywhere, had worn masks, socially distanced, or refrained from congregating in large groups. The outcome is unimaginable.

But failing to take minimal precautions to limit the spread COVID-19 — or worse, deliberately resisting such efforts — reflects a high level of egoic self-preoccupation, selfishness, and lack of concern for other people.

To examine the question of why some people refuse to take steps to fight coronavirus, let's turn the question around and ask,"What does it take, at minimum, for someone to behave in ways that protect themselves and other people from being infected with COVID-19?" In order for people to take such precautions, four things are needed. Those who refuse to take precautions must be tripping over one or more of these four hurdles.

 

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I´d like to make an exercise and amplify those perspectives to country levels....like why New Zealand seem to have more empathetic citizens than Brazil (covid-19 wise)?

Why don’t you ever respond to requests for a right to reply to articles that are factually incorrect?

A small bug could get through a knitted mask, how do these women expect their masks to prevent a microscopic organism from getting through?

Science suggests that the government mandates are wrong headed.

In a fewer words, they're narcissists.

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