Question: Why are some people not able to understand the stay at home advise?
Dr Sumer Sethi
Founder DAMS eMedicoz | Author, Educator , Innovator, 3Times TEDx Speaker | Building eMedicoz Largest Medical Education Digital Platform
I started to think, why it is so difficult to understand clear messages and clear examples happening in other countries.
Then I realize the issue is we all have an inherent optimism bias. In normal course of life, positive thinking and Optimism is essential for us and is actually beneficial and most high achievers are optimistic. People who are more optimistic about future are more likely to put more efforts in their work and that hard work often translates into success.
But there is a problem to the optimism bias: it also means we're more resistant to warnings. We need to understand the difference between being optimistic about future and fool hardiness of ignoring clear warning by healthcare professionals and examples /trajectories of the disease happening in other countries.