The influence of pessimism on adverse network behavior during COVID-19: the mediating effect of negative affect and risk perception

Abstract

There had been an information epidemic during the COVID-19, which led to a lot of adverse network behavior among Internet users. From the perspective of cognition and emotion, this study focused on exploring the influence mechanism of pessimism on undergraduates’ adverse network behavior, and introduced the mediating variable of negative affect and risk perception. In this study, a cross-sectional questionnaire was used to evaluate pessimism, negative affect, risk perception and adverse network behavior of undergraduates to explore the characteristics of network behaviors of undergraduates during the COVID-19. 600 undergraduates from three universities in a city in China were selected as participants, among whom 312 students are female and 288 students are male. The results are as follows: (1) Pessimism is positively correlated with adverse network behavior, and pessimism has a significant positive effect on adverse network behavior. (2) Pessimism is positively correlated with negative affect, and negative affect is positively correlated with adverse network behavior. The mediating effect analysis shows that the mediating effect of negative affect on the relationship between pessimistic personality and adverse network behavior has statistical significance. (3) Pessimism is positively correlated with risk perception and risk perception is positively correlated with adverse network behavior. The mediating effect analysis shows that the mediating effect of risk perception on the relationship between pessimistic personality and adverse network behavior has statistical significance. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-03584-z.

Risk perception of coronavirus disease 2019 and career adaptability among college students: the mediating effect of hope and sense of mastery

“…Because the risk of COVID-19 is uncertain, incomplete information about the severity of the risk of the outbreak can cause psychological and emotional stress and may lead to negative psychological states (Etkin, 2009 ). Meanwhile, negative information about infectious diseases can lead to irrational fear and stress, and this negative emotional state can trigger pessimistic motivation (Wu, 2022 ), which in turn weakens the sense of hope. Therefore, when the perceived uncontrollability increases, people will experience a negative mental state, such as anxiety and pessimism, and reduce hope.…”