City, Media and Pandemic Stress

The paper deals with the modern metropolis, which, with all the advantages of living in a big city, is a source and catalyst of stress. The authors empha-size that in times of crisis, including epidemics, stress is on the rise. Currently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the urban population is under pressure from mass media, which, instead of giving an ade-quate assessment of what is happening, in pursuit of ratings, often inflame the situation. However, not all people react equally to “frightening” media con-tent. Building on the ideas of J. Rotter and R. Laza-rus, the authors show how different personality types respond to pandemic-related threats and how these types are susceptible to information shock. It is concluded that optimistic worldview, intelligence, altruism, volunteering, charity are becoming particu-larly relevant at present.