Cognitive Biases During the Coronavirus Outbreak in Iranian Society

Investigating how people behave and think in crises will be a valuable help in reducing and preventing injuries in various aspects of life, especially psychological aspect. For this purpose, this study was conducted to investigate the cognitive biases in the face of the coronavirus outbreak in Iran.

First, the data of the first quarter of the corona outbreak in Iran related to the social networks Twitter, Telegram, WhatsApp and Instagram with the keyword “coronavirus” were provided to the researchers by the Cognitive Science and Technology Headquarters. In the next step, the data were analyzed and due to the large volume of information, the data of Twitter and Telegram social networks were analyzed by content analysis method in terms of cognitive biases and their frequency.

The results showed that more than 25% Of the messages surveyed contained a kind of bias that had the highest frequency of quasi-definite biases (tendency to draw definitive conclusions despite uncertain information) and normality (tendency to interpret normalities while the situation is critical).

In general, it can be said that crises such as the corona crisis can affect the mental health of people in society and can affect their thinking and therefore their behavior.