"We found that knowledge is power," Neupert says. "The more factual information people knew about COVID-19, the less stress they had. That was true across age groups.
"Knowledge reduces uncertainty, and uncertainty can be very stressful," Neupert says. "Although speculative, it is likely that knowledge about this new virus reduced uncertainty, which in turn reduced feelings of pandemic stress."
The researchers went into the study thinking older adults would likely experience more stress related to COVID-19, because the disease was portrayed as particularly dangerous to seniors. But they found that pandemic-related stress levels were the same for all age groups.
