The fear of COVID-19 and its role in preventive behaviors

The economic and psychosocial consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have been far-reaching and unprecedented around the world. These circumstances appear to have had profound psychological effects on all individuals worldwide. One psychological aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic is fear. This brief paper argues that assessing fear is important and is the key reason we co-developed the 'Fear of COVID-19 Scale' (FCV-19S). It is argued that without knowing the level of fear about COVID-19 among different groups by specific socio-demographic variables (e.g., gender, age, education, ethnicity, religiosity, etc.) and/or different psychological factors (e.g., personality type) it is difficult to know whether education and prevention programs are needed, and if they are needed which groups to target and where. The collation and application of such data could be used to devise targeted education and/or prevention programs to help overcome fear of COVID-19 and help such individuals to engage in preventative behaviors.