Health Fears Are Nothing to Sneeze At(selected to complete a one-page question...),Health

When asked how likely it was that the average American would contract a serious illness, 26.7 percent of the control group answered affirmatively, compared to 41.2 percent of the sneeze-exposed group. The risk of dying from a heart attack before age 50 was a concern for 32.1 percent of the control group, compared to 45.4 percent of the sneeze-exposed group. The risk of dying from a crime or accident was perceived to be a real threat by 27.9 percent of the control group, compared to 41.2 percent of the sneeze-exposed group.

Those who'd been exposed to the sneezes were also more likely to feel the U.S. health-care system was in need of an overhaul.

In the second scenario, 47 people agreed to participate in a survey at a Michigan-area shopping mall. In this experiment, 23 were exposed to a sneeze and cough just before the survey, while the remaining 24 were not. All of the study volunteers were asked whether they would prefer that $1.3 billion be spent on flu vaccine development or the creation of green jobs. Only 16.7 percent of the controls felt that the money should be spent on flu vaccines versus 47.8 percent of the sneeze-exposed group.

"When someone sneezes, you get a little worry response that makes all kinds of things seem more dangerous. Usually, this worry response serves us well. We want to be alerted to risk, and we're usually less concerned with false positives than with possibly missing a real risk," said Schwarz.

"Fear can spread faster than any virus," said Dr. Marc Siegel, an associate professor of medicine and an internist at NYU Langone Medical Center. "Even if the mathematical model is correct, about one out of 80 people have gotten
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