| Scale items | Correlation with PES |
|---|---|
| Engagement in behaviors to follow health guidelines scale | |
| I am making an effort to wash my hands more. | −0.20⁎⁎⁎ |
| I am engaging in social distancing. | −0.37⁎⁎⁎ |
| If I am invited to a fun party that I want to attend, I will go. (reversed) | 0.53⁎⁎⁎ |
| I am not or would not follow a “shelter in place” order. (reversed) | 0.51⁎⁎⁎ |
| I have changed my behavior due to the pandemic. | −0.26⁎⁎⁎ |
| I am following the rules put in place by my state. | −0.29⁎⁎⁎ |
| I am wearing a mask when I can't keep my distance from other people. | −0.01 |
| I am making an effort to disinfect and sanitize surfaces that are touched by multiple people. | −0.10⁎ |
| Concern about getting sick scale | |
| I believe I am not at risk of getting sick from the coronavirus. (reversed) | 0.42⁎⁎⁎ |
| It is likely that I will stay healthy in the upcoming months. (reversed). | 0.23⁎⁎⁎ |
| It is likely that I will get infected by the coronavirus. | 0.05 |
| I will not catch COVID-19. (reversed) | 0.37⁎⁎⁎ |
| Perceived ability to handle COVID-19 infection scale | |
| I am worried about what will happen if I catch COVID-19. (reversed). | −0.04 |
| If I do get sick, it won't be a big deal. | 0.30⁎⁎⁎ |
| If I get sick, I expect to recover well. | 0.20⁎⁎⁎ |
| If I catch COVID-19, I am likely to be asymptomatic. | 0.28⁎⁎⁎ |
| If I catch COVID-19, I will be able to handle it. | 0.16⁎⁎ |
| I have the resources I need to get through COVID-19 if I catch it. | 0.15⁎⁎ |
| Concern for others scale | |
| If I get COVID-19, I might accidently infect others. | −0.19⁎⁎⁎ |
| I am paying attention to how my actions could potentially put others at risk. | −0.23⁎⁎⁎ |
| I don't think it is likely that I would pass the coronavirus to others even if I got sick. (reversed). | 0.48⁎⁎⁎ |
| I am worried about negatively affecting others if I get sick. | −0.25⁎⁎⁎ |
| Belief that threat of COVID-19 is overblown scale | |
| I think the threat of the virus has been overblown by the media. | 0.40⁎⁎⁎ |
| This virus is a serious threat to our nation. (reversed) | −0.23⁎⁎⁎ |
| I think the government is overly concerned about the coronavirus. | 0.44⁎⁎⁎ |
| The news makes the virus sound worse than it is. | 0.39⁎⁎⁎ |
| I don't believe a lot of what I have been hearing about how serious the virus is. | 0.40⁎⁎⁎ |
| I don't trust the information I have seen about how bad COVID-19 is. | 0.39⁎⁎⁎ |
| In general, the dangers of this virus have been exaggerated. | 0.42⁎⁎⁎ |
Note. We divided a concern about getting sick and the perceived ability to handle getting sick into two separate scales in this study (whereas they were part of the same scale in Study 1). This is consistent with the Health Belief Model's two threat types of perceptions of susceptibility and perceptions of severity. We also asked directly about concern about harming others instead of just a concern for others in this study.
⁎
p < .05.
⁎⁎
p < .01.
⁎⁎⁎
p < .001.