Risk perception is a psychological construct influenced by the available information about specific illnesses or conditions and several psychosocial variables. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to understand people´s perceptions about the illness and their subsequent behaviour. In the present study we aimed to assess risk and illness perceptions about COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic in a community sample and to assess whether illness perception dimensions, dispositional optimism, compared risk and perceived self-efficacy are predictors of individual risk perception for COVID-19. The participants were 549 Portuguese adults not infected by COVID-19 who completed an online survey. Our findings showed that individual and compared risk perceptions about COVID-19 were high as well as concern, negative emotional representation, and perceived consequences. The predictive model showed that 54% of the variance of the perceived individual risk was explained by compared risk, followed by concern, emotional representation, and self-efficacy. These findings highlight the importance of comparative risk (unrealistic comparative optimism) in the formation of individual risk perception. Social comparison can be an important factor for risk perception and the adoption of protective behaviours for COVID-19.

风险感知是一种心理结构，受有关特定疾病或状况的可用信息以及若干社会心理变量的影响。在 COVID-19 大流行的背景下，了解人们对疾病及其后续行为的看法非常重要。在本研究中，我们旨在评估社区样本中大流行开始时对 COVID-19 的风险和疾病认知，并评估疾病认知维度、性格乐观、风险比较和自我效能感是否是个人风险认知的预测因子对于 COVID-19。参与者是完成在线调查的 549 名未感染 COVID-19 的葡萄牙成年人。我们的研究结果表明，个人和比较对 COVID-19 的风险认知既高又担忧，负面情绪表征和感知后果。预测模型显示，54% 的感知个体风险方差由比较风险解释，其次是关注、情绪表征和自我效能。这些发现强调了比较风险（不切实际的比较乐观主义）在个人风险感知形成中的重要性。社会比较可能是风险感知和采取 COVID-19 保护行为的重要因素。这些发现强调了比较风险（不切实际的比较乐观主义）在个人风险感知形成中的重要性。社会比较可能是风险感知和采取 COVID-19 保护行为的重要因素。这些发现强调了比较风险（不切实际的比较乐观主义）在个人风险感知形成中的重要性。社会比较可能是风险感知和采取 COVID-19 保护行为的重要因素。