Search for: All records

To develop a new measure of preferred sources for risk information, two studies asked respondents to indicate what channels they were reliant on for information about COVID‐19, from 25 news channels ranging across the political spectrum. Unexpectedly, dependencies clustered around level of reliability rather than the political orientation of the news channel. In other words, each cluster included media channels from both the left and right side of the political spectrum, while dependencies clustered into sources that varied by the degree to which their content is reliable. Participants who turned to lower reliability channels indicated lower risk perceptions, less accurate probability estimations, reduced vaccination intentions, and lower protective behavioral intentions. Those inclined to use higher reliability channels indicated higher risk perceptions, more accurate probability estimations, increased vaccination intentions, and higher protective behavioral intentions. These relationships are discussed in terms of implications for our understanding of source reliance and risk perception, information sufficiency, and implications for both future research and public health interventions.

 

A lengthy history of research in the crisis communication literature has documented sex differences in information needs and responses. Response Styles Theory is introduced as a potential explanatory mechanism for these findings, which may be attributable to differences in rumination tendency. A representative survey of over 5000 US residents explored information seeking and risk perceptions regarding the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Results support the argument that previously observed sex differences may be accounted for rumination, and rumination is predictive of specific (but not general) risk estimation. Rumination may also drive information seeking and subsequent depressive symptoms, especially among men. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for risk and crisis communicators, and our consideration of gender norms and their impact on risk message processing 

A lengthy history of research in the crisis communication literature has documented sex differences in information needs and responses. Response Styles Theory is introduced as a potential explanatory mechanism for these findings, which may be attributable to differences in rumination tendency. A representative survey of over 5000 U.S. residents explored information seeking and risk perceptions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Results support the argument that previously observed sex differences may be accounted for by rumination, and that rumination is predictive of specific (but not general) risk estimation. Rumination may also drive information seeking and subsequent depressive symptoms, especially among men. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for risk and crisis communicators, and our consideration of gender norms and their impact on risk message processing. 

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has created substantial challenges for public health officials who must communicate pandemic-related risks and recommendations to the public. Their efforts have been further hampered by the politicization of the pandemic, including media outlets that question the seriousness and necessity of protective actions. The availability of highly politicized news from online platforms has led to concerns about the notion of ‘‘echo chambers,’’ whereby users are exposed only to information that conforms to and reinforces their existing beliefs. Using a sample of 5,000 US residents, we explored their information-seeking tendencies, reliance on conservative and liberal online media, risk perceptions, and mitigation behaviors. The results of our study suggest that risk perceptions may vary across preferences for conservative or liberal bias; however, our results do not support differences in the mitigation behavior across patterns of media use. Further, our findings do not support the notion of echo chambers, but rather suggest that people with lower information-seeking behavior may be more strongly influenced by politicized COVID-19 news. Risk estimates converge at higher levels of information seeking, suggesting that high information seekers consume news from sources across the political spectrum. These results are discussed in terms of their theoretical implications for the study of online echo chambers and their practical implications for public health officials and emergency managers.