We also found that the statistics stalkers believed they were more likely to get the coronavirus. Fourteen percent of them said they were at least somewhat likely to get the coronavirus, compared with only 5 percent of non-stalkers.

Of course, we don’t know whether the stalkers were “wrong” to think that they were so likely to get infected, given the small amount of available data about infections in the United States at the time of our survey. However, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, Hubei, the Chinese province where the virus emerged, has reported 67,760 infected people out of a population of about 59 million, an incidence rate of 0.11 percent. This means that 99.89 percent were not infected, suggesting that the American stalkers are probably overestimating their level of risk.

Stalkers also agreed more than non-stalkers did with the statement that it was important to stock up on water, food and toilet paper to prepare for a virus outbreak. While amassing supplies can be warranted in some situations, stalkers also reported that they were more likely to purchase a surgical mask to protect themselves from infection from others, giving the impression that they were less informed. (Wearing a surgical mask does little to protect you against virus spread unless you’re caring for someone with the virus.)

Our findings suggest that people who look frequently at coronavirus statistics may focus too much on the scary stuff — the numbers of infected people and deaths — and not enough on the numbers of people not infected and of those infected who survived. The stalkers become unduly afraid, and their fear distorts their sense of how dangerous the situation is.

To be sure, we do not know for sure that looking more at the statistics caused increased fear. It may be that fearful people were driven to look more at the statistics. (We’ll continue to study these people over time to see what more we can learn.)