Visualising Viruses

Two years ago, nobody had heard of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Today, it’s probably the most famous virus in the world thanks to its starring role in the COVID-19 pandemic. It's not just the name that’s become familiar: most news and TV stories feature a picture of the virus, often as a highly stylised, coloured computer graphic. New research shows that the way that the virus is depicted in the media affects how people feel about it, with beautiful, coloured graphics tending to make people perceive the virus as being less real and contagious than black and white photos or scientific models like the ones in this image. In turn, this could affect how seriously people take the need to change their behaviour, such as wearing a mask, social distancing or getting vaccinated. It’s a timely reminder that pictures are as important as words when communicating health information to the public.

Written by Kat Arney

Kat Arney

Writer

Dr Kat Arney is an award-winning science writer, broadcaster and public speaker, and is the founder and Creative Director of First Create The Media.

Website

• Images by National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases and bottom right Public Health Image Library by Alissa Eckert & Dan Higgins
• Research by Celia Andreu-Sánchez and Miguel Ángel Martín-Pascual, Neuro-Com Research Group, Audio-visual Communication and Advertising Department, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
• Images originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in PLOS ONE, August 2021