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COVID-19, Coronavirus, Wuhan Virus, or China Virus? Understanding How to "Do No Harm" When Naming an Infectious

Theodore C Masters-Waage1, Nilotpal Jha1, Jochen Reb1

  • 1Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University, Singapore, Singapore.

Frontiers in Psychology
|December 28, 2020
PubMed

Insights

Infectious disease naming conventions, like "Spanish flu," do not increase sinophobia or anxiety. This study found no evidence that virus names impact public perception or stigmatization, suggesting naming concerns may be overstated.

Area of Science:

  • Social Psychology
  • Public Health
  • Epidemiology

Background:

  • Official scientific names are recommended over place-specific names for infectious diseases to prevent stigmatization.
  • Concerns exist regarding potential negative consequences of place-specific disease naming, such as sinophobia.
  • Empirical evidence supporting these negative consequences of infectious disease nomenclature is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To empirically investigate the impact of infectious disease naming on sinophobia and public perception during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • To test hypotheses that place-specific names increase sinophobia and scientific names increase anxiety and risk aversion.
  • To provide evidence regarding the importance of naming conventions in public health communication.

Main Methods:

  • Two preregistered studies (N = 504; N = 412) were conducted across three countries.
  • Study 1 occurred during the early outbreak (April 2020), and Study 2 later in the pandemic (August 2020).
  • Bayesian analyses were used to assess the impact of disease naming on sinophobia, anxiety, risk aversion, and beliefs about contagiousness and mortality.

Main Results:

  • No evidence was found that place-specific names (e.g., "Wuhan Virus") increased sinophobia.
  • No impact was observed for scientific names (e.g., "COVID-19") on anxiety, risk aversion, or perceptions of contagiousness and mortality.
  • Bayesian analyses provided strong support for the null hypothesis across all tested outcomes, indicating no significant effects of naming.

Conclusions:

  • The study provides no empirical evidence that infectious disease naming impacts attitudes toward Chinese individuals or virus perceptions.
  • Results suggest that concerns about the stigmatizing effects of place-specific disease names may be overstated.
  • The importance placed on infectious disease nomenclature in public health policy may warrant re-evaluation based on current evidence.

Keywords:
COVID-19China VirusWuhan Viruscoronaviruspandemicpsychology of namingpublic messagingsinophobia

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