Gender Differences in Emotional Responses to Impending Danger

"Having done a little bit of research myself, looking at gender differences when it comes to risk perception, there's a fairly clear literature that says that men are just less likely to perceive risk as acutely as women."

"Men are much less likely to be worrying, but they're also less likely to be staying home, not going out and not interacting with other people -- basically not doing social distancing -- than women."

"That 30 to 44-age group across the board, whether men or female, are the most worried about this. So I think it is partly a parental driver. I think that parental instinct in young dads, it reflects that huge gap between those two  younger cohorts."

"We can't assume that these messages from public health agencies are actually getting through to everybody. It's hard to persuade people until  you're personally affected by it. And by then it's too late."

David Coletto, CEO, Abacus Data

While groceries and pharmacies and other designated essential public services are slated to remain open in Ontario and Quebec, all other non-essential enterprises have been ordered to close. Both governments have indicated they are prepared to enforce those closures should there be pushback from those involved, in the greater interests of protecting the public at large from the spread of the infectious novel coronavirus.

"This is not the time for half-measures. This decision [to close all schools and universities among other public institutions] was not made lightly and the gravity of this order does not escape me, but as I have said since day one, we will and we must take all steps necessary to stop the spread of COVOD-19."

Ontario Premier Doug Ford

"I am going to make sure that we continue to follow all recommendations of public health officers, particularly around staying at home wherever possible and self-isolation and social distancing", reiterated Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, himself remaining in self-isolation, while his wife is recovering from the novel coronavirus she contracted while on a trip to the U.K. The federal government's latest revelatory update of 1,474 coronavirus cases in Canada, with 20 people dead, is sobering.

The survey revealing the vast difference between the attitudes of men and women to the gravity of the spread of COVID-19 indicates that 49 percent of women respondents are very worried, with 29 percent somewhat concerned about the outbreak, while 30 percent of men are very worried and 33 percent are somewhat worried. And while 25 percent of women are either a little or not at all worried, 37 percent of men fall into that same category.

Notably, men are less likely to take the advice of health officials to self-isolate in a push to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. The poll also highlighted a difference between baby boomers and young people, each accusing the other group of being the most intransigent over following public health advice. Both young men and older men resist health advice and the need to self-isolate. And then there is the group of men aged 30 to 44 who have seriously absorbed the virus warnings.

So while forty percent of men age 30 to 44 years are very worried, a number double that of men aged 18 to 29 who feel similarly, the former age demographic is linked to their status as fathers of young children. That there are large groups of people for whom the presence of an unknown and dangerous infectious virus sweeping through populations feel unconcerned is worrisome indeed. As is the anecdotal stories of young people assembling in large groups and partying, defying reality.

In this file photo, people walk and cycle on the seawall between English Bay and Sunset Beach, in Vancouver, on Sunday, March 22, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck