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News
Health
Coronavirus

How to Make Decisions in a Pandemic: A Tyee Video

WATCH: Humans aren’t built to make smart decisions right now. Here’s a guide to doing better.

Tyee Staff 8 Apr 2020TheTyee.ca

‘Statistics are human beings with the tears dried off,’ says psychologist Paul Slovic. 

Smart decisions are never more critical than in a pandemic.

But our brains aren’t wired well to judge risks and plan responses when a virus like COVID-19 threatens us all.

Fortunately, this short Tyee video — less than five minutes long — can help you understand the problem, make smarter decisions and do a better job of protecting yourself and others.

Two experts — psychologist Paul Slovic, an expert in decision-making in times of risk, and UBC bioethicist Rana Ahmad — explain why we get things wrong and how we can adjust our thinking to make smarter choices.

Why, for example, our impulse to stock up on hand sanitizer seems sensible, but works against our self-interest and increases our chances of getting COVID-19. And why our brains struggle to compute the kinds of risks that come with exponential growth.

This video is the first in a series of pandemic-related videos in partnership with Vancouver’s Avo Media team of Jesse Lupini, Koby Michaels and Lucas Kavanagh.

Stay tuned for more. And let us know what you think in the comments.

To get notified when new videos are uploaded, follow our Youtube channel by clicking the red 'subscribe' button. [Tyee]

Read more: Health, Coronavirus

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