 The coronavirus crisis is a serious situation that deserves our vigilance and attention. But for some people, the constant stream of information including warnings, threatening statistics and demoralizing news can result in feelings of worry, fear and panic. When does being informed cross the line into too much information? When do caution become overaction and alertness become fear? My name is Robin Wallast, I'm a doctor in psychology and in this video I will introduce you to the psychology of coronavirus fear. Fear is a universal emotion experienced by everyone around the world as well as among other animal species. Emotion theories define fear as an unpleasant feeling caused by the threat of danger, pain or harm. The main function of fear is to act as a signal of danger, threat or multivocional conflict and to trigger appropriate adaptive responses such as fighting, freezing, running, increasing vigilance and so on. Importantly, there are strong individual differences with some people being more disposed to experiencing fear than others. In the coronavirus context, emotions including fear may manifest via three main components over the behavior, verbal cognitive and physiological. First, an individual's fear of contagion may be exhibited by behavior responses such as avoiding all contact with other people or excessively hand washing. These behavioral responses generated by fear will motivate individuals to avoid and protect themselves from the perceived danger. Second, people may verbally report what they feel and think about the coronavirus. This is the subjective experience of emotion when the brain cognitively interprets the situation. Third, fear is associated with physiological responses such as an increased heart rate or accelerated breathing in the presence of threats like watching new updates on television. Physiological responses depend on the nature of the threat and the best response option. For instance, crying can appear as a physiological process to cope with fear, stress or anxiety as it may assist in generally maintaining biological homeostasis, perhaps consciously through self-suiting via purposeful breathing and unconsciously through regulation of heart rate. At the psychological level, scientists have demonstrated that fear is closely related to intolerance of uncertainty. One of the most prevalent fears people have is that of losing control. This is the fear that if you don't manage to control the outcome of future events, something terrible will happen. The fear of coronavirus is likely due to its novelty and uncertainties about how bad the current outbreak might become. Demanding certainty in an uncertain world is impossible. When people don't have certainty, they worry and ruminate about it. These ruminations can be amplified in a threatening context such as the coronavirus pandemic and may lead to anxiety, fear or panic. This feeling of fear and lack of control can emerge from several sources in the coronavirus situation. First, health anxiety, which is the perceived vulnerability to disease, is one of the strongest predictors of fear and anxiety. The more concern you have for your health, the higher is the risk for you to experience unpleasant emotions. Second, risk for loved ones. Another important factor to consider is whether the threat is personally relevant either to oneself or to loved ones. As such, one would expect more worry and fear if the threat of the coronavirus is highly relevant for one's own general health or to loved ones like parents or grandparents. Third, economic instability. Millions of individuals all around the world have been told to stay at home and most of them have not been able to work and earn money because they are unable to do their job from home. Consequently, many people have started to be worried and panicking about a financial situation. Four, media exposure to threatening information about the virus is known to elevate levels of fear and worry. If you are experiencing unpleasant emotions such as worry, fear and anxiety, I encourage you to watch my coping video in which I give 8 useful tips to cope with negative emotions related to the coronavirus. The link will appear at the end of the video. Thank you for watching. Let me know in the comments how you cope with coronavirus fear and if you find this video helpful, please consider sharing it. You never know who might need this. Stay safe and healthy. Bye.