AUTHOR=Hareli Shlomo , David Or , Basis Fuad , Hess Ursula 

TITLE=Does It Pay to Treat Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019? Social Perception of Physicians Treating Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2021

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.781220

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2021.781220

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=During the COVID-19 pandemic, the public has often expressed great appreciation toward medical personnel who were often shown in the media expressing strong emotions about the situation. To examine whether people's perception of a physician is indeed influenced by whether the physician treats COVID-19 patients and the emotions they expressed in response to the situation, 454 participants were recruited in May of 2020. Participants saw facial expressions of anger, sadness, happiness, and neutrality which supposedly were shown by physicians who were presented as either working in COVID-19 wards or an internal medicine ward. Participants rated how competent, empathetic, caring, and likable each physician was, to what degree they would wish to be treated by each physician, and what salary each physician deserved. 
Physicians treating COVID-19 patients were seen more positively and as deserving higher pay; they appeared more competent, caring, likable, and were more likely to be chosen as a caregiver compared to physicians not treating COVID-19 patients. Physicians' expressed emotions had a strong impact on how they were perceived yet this effect was largely unrelated to whether they treated COVID-19 patients or not such that happy physicians seemed more empathetic, caring, and likable than the physicians who showed negative emotions. Positive regard toward physicians treating COVID-19 patients was associated with the fact that they were seen as saving lives and not due to the risk imposed by their work.