An Agenda-Setting Account for Psychological Typhoon Eye Effect on Responses to the Outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan

Abstract

During the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan in 2020, we conducted a nationwide survey of 8170 respondents from 31 provinces/municipalities in China via Sojump to examine the relationship between the distance to respondents’ city of residence from Wuhan and their safety concerns and risk perception of the epidemic that occurred in Wuhan City. We found that (1) the farther (psychologically or physically) people were from Wuhan, the more concerned they were with the safety of the epidemic risk in Wuhan, which we dubbed the psychological typhoon eye (PTE) effect on responses to the outbreak of COVID-19; (2) agenda setting can provide a principled account for such effect: the risk information proportion mediated the PTE effect. The theoretical and managerial implications for the PTE effect and public opinion disposal were discussed, and agenda setting was identified to be responsible for the preventable overestimated risk perception.

The Relationship between Distance and Risk Perception in Multi-Tier Supply Chain: The Psychological Typhoon Eye Effect

“…Available information has a significant impact on the assessments and judgments that are made, thereby influencing the emotions and actions of supply chain participants towards the disrupted firm [88]. Yang et al's research [42] has explored the PTE effect mechanism in terms of the quantity dimension of the available information in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, while the present study validated the PTE effect through the quality dimension of the available information in the context of supply chain disruption risk. Specifically, supply chain members who are close to the disrupted echelon have easier and more timely access to first-hand disruption risk information, i.e., they have access to high-quality information about the disruption risk.…”

“…In their study, RIP was defined as the ratio of "the amount of information related to the occurrence of risk events in a certain area" and "the total amount of information about all events in a certain area". Yang et al's research [42] can be seen as an explanation of the PTE effect mechanism in terms of the quantity dimension of the available information, while the present study attempts to examine whether another dimension of the available information, i.e., information quality, can explain the PTE effect in the supply chain disruption risk.…”

“…More recently, Yang and colleagues discovered that the proportion of risk information (RIP) played a significant role in explaining the PTE effect concerning COVID-19 risk perception in Wuhan. Specifically, the RIP acts as a mediator between the respondents' distance from Wuhan and their level of concern and perception of risk regarding the epidemic that took place in the city [42]. In their study, RIP was defined as the ratio of "the amount of information related to the occurrence of risk events in a certain area" and "the total amount of information about all events in a certain area".…”