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Women are taking the COVID-19 outbreak a lot more seriously than men are, a new poll from Abacus Data has found.

The poll was conducted from March 20 to March 22 and reached 1,378 respondents across the country.

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Forty-nine per cent of women said they are very worried about the outbreak, along with 26 per cent who are somewhat worried. Thirty per cent of men are very worried about the virus and 33 per cent are somewhat worried.

Thirty-seven per cent of men are either a little or not all worried about the outbreak, compared to 25 per cent of women.

“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,” said David Coletto, the CEO of Abacus Data, in an interview with the National Post on Monday.

Along with being less likely to worry, men are also less likely to follow the advice being offered by public health officials to help mitigate the effects of the pandemic, the polling data shows.