Imagine you wake up one morning with a scratchy throat and a slight fever. You have an important meeting at work that you’ve been preparing for weeks. Do you call in sick, potentially disappointing your colleagues and jeopardizing your professional reputation? Or do you pop a few painkillers, put on a brave face, and hope for the best? According to recent research, many of us would choose the latter option, even if our symptoms were more severe or if we believed we might be contagious.
In a world still reeling from a global pandemic, the study uncovers a surprising trend: people are still choosing to hide their illnesses from others, despite the fact that doing so could put others at risk. This phenomenon, known as “disease concealment,” is more common than you might think and has far-reaching implications for public health and social behavior.
Perhaps most stunning is the revelation that people are more likely to conceal their illnesses when their symptoms are more severe and when the risk of transmission to others is higher. This counterintuitive finding challenges our assumptions about human behavior during times of illness and raises important questions about the factors that drive us to keep our health status a secret.
The research, conducted at the University of Michigan, found that a staggering 75% of the 4,110 participants across several studies reported either hiding an infectious illness from others at least once or said they might do so in the future. Many participants admitted to boarding planes, going on dates, and engaging in other social interactions while secretly sick. Even more alarming, more than 61% of healthcare workers participating in the study said they had concealed an infectious illness.
“Healthy people forecasted that they would be unlikely to hide harmful illnesses—those that spread easily and have severe symptoms—but actively sick people reported high levels of concealment regardless of how harmful their illness was to others,” says lead author Wilson N. Merrell, a doctoral candidate at Michigan, in a statement.
This tendency to conceal illness goes beyond the common cold or flu. The study’s findings, published in the journal Psychological Science, suggest that people may be more likely to hide their health status even when dealing with more serious conditions. This behavior can have serious consequences, not just for the individual, but for public health as a whole.
Source: https://studyfinds.org/why-people-hide-theyre-sick-contagious/