The need to be in control of one’s fate is profound. When we feel in control, our brain feels ‘empowered’. Whether in a social, behavioural, psychological or economic context, to be empowered is to feel certainty in our lives.
COVID-19 is challenging that sense of control. As a result, hundreds of millions - if not billions - of brains around the world are feeling collectively disempowered. And that sense of disempowerment is likely to be stronger for those who strongly identified with being ‘an individual’, ‘self-made’, or ‘a lone wolf’ - a common archetype in the USA (and the West in general).
Why?