Health anxiety is associated with fearful imagery of contracting COVID-19: An experimental study
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 13, 2025

Using the Threat Probability Task to Assess Anxiety and Fear During Uncertain and Certain Threat
Published on: September 12, 2014
Christoph Benke1, Tabea Schönborn1, Nina Habermann1
1Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Philipps University of Marburg, Gutenbergstraße 18, 35032 Marburg, Germany.
Background:
Aversive mental images of contracting or having a severe disease are assumed to contribute to the development and maintenance of health anxiety (HA) via the elicitation of fear, arousal and defensive mobilization. The current COVID-19 pandemic is known to trigger fears of contracting COVID-19.
Methods:
In this study, we used an experimental approach to investigate whether COVID-19-related mental images lead to a fearful response and whether this is associated with levels of HA. 139 participants vividly imagined neutral, standard fear and COVID-19 related narrative scenes.
Results:
Standard fear and COVID-19 scripts prompted higher anxiety, arousal, displeasure and avoidance tendencies as compared to neutral scripts. HA was associated with higher anxiety, arousal, displeasure, imagery vividness and stronger avoidance tendencies during imagery of COVID-19 scenes. No associations were found for anxiety sensitivity, trait anxiety as well as depressive and anxiety symptoms. Moreover, there was no association of HA with emotional responses during imagery of standard fear scenes.
Limitations:
Fear responses were assessed via verbal reports. Future studies should also assess behavioral and physiological correlates of fear.
Conclusions:
The present results indicate that individuals with high levels of HA are prone to fearful mental imagery of contracting COVID-19 which might be crucial factor contributing to the exacerbation and chronicity of excessive HA in times of a pandemic.
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