Risk Perception, Media, and Ordinary People’s Intention to Engage in Self-Protective Behaviors in the Early Stage of COVID-19 Pandemic in China

Xu, Tao; Wu, Xiaoqin

doi:10.2147/rmhp.s374889

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…After deleting 76 missing surveys because more than one-third of the questions were not answered, we used 1537 responses. Although most of the initial questionnaire respondents were acquaintances, the questionnaire information collected by the snowball sampling method, compared with the current relevant demographic data, was almost consistent in most of the indicators except for some specific population variables; therefore, it is representative to some extent [58,72]. Moreover, the respondents filled in the questionnaire without any economic incentives, so the data collected are likely to be more realistic.…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Risk Perception, Perceived Government Coping Validity, and Individual Response in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic in China

Shao

Liu

et al. 2023

IJERPH

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As a major crisis event, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the global economy, threatened the lives of the public, and caused varying degrees of impact on the public. Previous studies have shown that risk perception and government response had different impacts on the public, but they revealed more about the independent impact of risk perception and government response on the public. This study will comprehensively consider the impacts of these two factors on the behavior of the public in the early stage of the epidemic. We analyzed data from an online survey in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in China and categorized individual behaviors into three dimensions: entertainment and travel, work, and the stockpile of supplies. In addition, we defined the risk perception variables by two dimensions: knowledge of the epidemic itself and knowledge of the consequences of the epidemic. At the same time, we used an exploratory factor analysis to construct the variable of perceived government coping validity and then adopted the ordinal logit model for analysis. The results showed that in terms of entertainment and travel, people would not be affected even if they fully understood the epidemic itself; once they were aware of the negative social consequences of the epidemic, people would suspend entertainment and travel to prevent the spread of the virus. As for work or employment, people would not stop working or employment even if they realized the infectivity and harmfulness of the disease and its social consequences. Furthermore, fear of COVID-19 and the perception of uncontrolled COVID-19 significantly positively affected people’s material stockpiling behavior. These results indicate that different risk perceptions had different effects on individual responses, and individual behaviors reflected different coping logics. In addition, the government’s effective response to the epidemic would significantly reduce the negative impacts of the epidemic on the three dimensions of people’s responses. These conclusions have certain policy implications for preventing and responding to outbreaks in other countries.

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Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following previous studies [48,72], the control variables used in this paper included gender, age, academic qualifications (transformed into years of education in the model), census register, and whether the respondents are returnees (see Table S3 for details).…”

Section: Control Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk Perception, Perceived Government Coping Validity, and Individual Response in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic in China

Shao

Liu

et al. 2023

IJERPH

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“…Social media has emerged as an important source of information for the public in recent years. 11 , 12 Researchers in risk management have claimed that social media influences people’s perception of risk and in turn affect their behavior. 13 , 14 Warnings by whistleblowers also have implications for the public’s perception of risk and subsequent behaviors.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Early Warning Mechanism of Public Health Emergencies Through Whistleblowing: A Perspective Based on Considering the Uncertainty of Risk Perception

Ma¹,

Liu²,

An³

2023

RMHP

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Purpose During the early warning period of public health emergencies, the information released by whistleblowers on the risk posed by the given event can reduce uncertainty in the public’s risk perception and help governments take timely actions to contain the large-scale dissemination of risk. The purpose of this study is to give full play to whistleblowers and draw attention to the risk events, forming a pluralistic model of the risk governance during the early warning period of public health emergencies. Methods We construct an evolutionary game model of the early warning of public health emergencies through whistleblowing that involves the government, whistleblowers, and the public, discussing the mechanism of interaction between these subjects under the uncertainty of risk perception. Furthermore, we use numerical simulations to analyze the influence of changes in the relevant parameters on the evolutionary trajectory of the subjects’ behaviors. Results The results of the research are obtained by numerical simulation of the evolutionary game model. The results show that the public’s cooperation with the government encourages the latter to take a positive guidance strategy. Increasing the reward for whistleblowers within an acceptable cost, strengthening the propaganda of the mechanism and the higher level of risk perception of the government and whistleblowers will promote whistleblowers’ vocalization actively. When the government’s reward for whistleblowers is lower, the whistleblowers choose negative vocalization with the improvement of the public’s risk perception. If there is no mandatory guidance from the government at this point, the public is prone to passively cooperating with the government owing to a lack of risk-related information. Conclusion Establishing an early warning mechanism through whistleblowing is important for containing risk in the early warning period of public health emergencies. Building the whistleblowing mechanism in daily work can improve the effectiveness of the mechanism and enhance the public’s risk perception better when the public health emergencies arise.

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“…After removing 76 incomplete surveys where more than one-third of the questions were left unanswered, the analysis was based on 1537 responses. Although some of the initial participants were known to the researchers, the demographic data collected through the snowball sampling method were largely consistent with current data, except for some specific population variables, making it representative to some extent [ 25 , 54 ]. The respondents completed the questionnaire without any financial incentives, which definitely resulted in more realistic data.…”

Section: Data and Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk Perception, Perceived Government Coping Validity, and Individual Sleep Problems in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic in China: Mediation Analysis Based on Negative Emotions

Zheng

2023

Healthcare

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This study aimed to investigate the relationship among risk perception, negative emotions, perceived government coping validity, and the sleep problem of the public, through regression analysis and mediation analysis of data from the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak in China (three months after the outbreak). It found that people’s perception of the risk of the pandemic, negative emotions, and perceived government coping validity significantly affected people’s sleep quality and nightmares. Further analysis found that individuals’ perception of risk not only affected their sleep but also intensified their negative emotions, ultimately impairing the quality of their sleep and leading to nightmares. However, having a high level of coping validity can mitigate negative emotions and consequently decrease the occurrence of nightmares, thereby enhancing the quality of sleep. Specifically, perceived government coping validity could not only directly reduce nightmares, but also indirectly reduce nightmares by lowering negative emotions. However, it could only indirectly improve sleep by reducing negative emotions. It implicated that improving and resolving sleep problems required not only medical intervention but also psychological intervention. Simultaneously, improving the government’s response effectiveness could strengthen people’s trust in the government, stabilize their mental states, and significantly improve their quality of life by reducing negative emotions and improving sleep.

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Risk Perception, Media, and Ordinary People’s Intention to Engage in Self-Protective Behaviors in the Early Stage of COVID-19 Pandemic in China

Cited by 5 publications

References 79 publications

Risk Perception, Perceived Government Coping Validity, and Individual Response in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic in China

Risk Perception, Perceived Government Coping Validity, and Individual Response in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic in China

The Early Warning Mechanism of Public Health Emergencies Through Whistleblowing: A Perspective Based on Considering the Uncertainty of Risk Perception

Risk Perception, Perceived Government Coping Validity, and Individual Sleep Problems in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic in China: Mediation Analysis Based on Negative Emotions

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