A short presentation on the Perception of Invulnerability and the Covid-19 Pandemic

1. PERCEPTION OF
INVULNERABILITY
DR. RAFAEL CHIUZI
& #PHYSICALDISTANCING
Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream
Organizational Behaviour & HRM
University of Toronto Mississauga
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY
@rafaelchiuzi

2. WHY IS IT SO HARD FOR
PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND
#PHYSICALDISTANCING?
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF COVID-19
PANDEMIC

3. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2009-07298-026
Peer-reviewed
published article
Link to the article
https://doi.org/10.1590/S1413-73722008000400027

6. The Sense of Invulnerability
before the occurrence of victimizing events, people have a sense of
invulnerability, that is, they believe that the possibility of being struck by
undesirable events (victims) is little and that the chances of
experiencing positive events are higher.
Thus, people with higher levels of a sense of invulnerability tend to be
involved in a greater number of events considered dangerous and / or
possibly harmful. They also tend to underestimate events such as natural
disasters and health-related misfortunes, as well as adverse phenomena,
such as crimes or accidents of any kind (Perloff, 1983)

7. The study
According to Bulman & Frieze (1983), when victimizing events affect a
person, they immediately go through a period of psychological
maladjustment.
During this period, the victim reassesses their beliefs. This period is
characterized by a “conflict” between the established cognitive
schema and the psychological adjustments necessary to adapt to new
types of situations where the perception of invulnerability is no longer
the same as before, it starts to incorporate new facts and structure
new ones.

8. 01
02
03
04
Belief in Personal
Invulnerability
(bad stuff don’t happen to me)
Sense of Control of the
Environment
(I can control and anticipate things that
happen around me)
Positive Self-Perception
(I’m intelligent and smart enough to deal
with everything)
Sense of Protection
(I’m protected by religion, or even luck)

9. How people think about this
I feel
protected by
my faith
I feel
protected by
God
I am a
strong
person
I am a
clever
person
I will never
lose
relatives
I will never
get sick

11. Key
takeaways
Doctors, nurses, and other health
frontline workers are usually the
firsts saying – Stay Home!
People who are affected by the
disease also urge others to stay
home
People with pre-existing
conditions say: stay home please!

12. Key Takeaways
People with higher
perception of invulnerability
will only realize the
importance of #stayhome
once the loved ones around
them get sick or die.
1
Fortunately, as humans we
can learn from each other!
And as soon as people
realize that this is the right
thing to do, we will get out of
this scenario quicker.
2