Motivated Helplessness in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Evidence for a Curvilinear Relationship Between Perceived Ability to Avoid the Virus and Anxiety

Introduction: We tested the hypothesis that feelings of helplessness — i e , the perception that one is unable to control and prevent negative events — may serve a protective psychological function against fear and anxiety arousal in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic Methods: We conducted a large scale study with participants from different countries (N = 3,632) to examine if perceived helplessness to avoid being infected with COVID-19 relates to lower levels of fear of CO-VID-19, and state anxiety Results: We found a curvilinear relationship between feeling helpless to avoid being infected with COVID-19 and self-reported anxiety Individuals who reported either low or high degrees of helplessness reported less anxiety and fear of being infected with COVID-19 compared to those who reported moderate levels of helplessness Additional analyses within countries with adequate power (N 160) indicated that this curvilinear effect was found among participants from the USA, UK, Poland, Estonia, and the Netherlands, but not in Argentina and Germany Discussion: We discuss the implications for research on the psychological function of helplessness and for understanding peoples’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic © 2020 Guilford Publications All rights reserved