Objectives
This study aimed to explore how individuals exposed to COVID-19-related news on social media became engaged in COVID-19 information seeking behaviors to prevent the disease.
Methods
Based on the various health behavior theories, we hypothesized that exposure to COVID-19 news on social media might affect individuals’ perceived risk of the coronavirus and the following affective risk response (e.g., fear and anxiety) about the virus, thereby increasing their information seeking behaviors to prevent COVID-19. We considered content credibility to be an effect modifier of the association between exposure to COVID-19 news and perceived risk. Data were collected by surveying the US adults aged 18 or older using an online survey platform. To test our hypotheses, we employed multivariate regressions by controlling for a number of covariates.
Results
A total of 914 responses were collected for our analyses. Majority of the respondents (67%) were aged between 25 and 44 years, and about half of them (45%) were females. As expected, we found that exposure to COVID-19 news on social media was positively associated with individuals’ information seeking behaviors to prevent the disease (regression coefficient (b)=0.3369, p < 0.001). This association was mediated serially by perceived risk (b=0.8397, p < 0.001) and the following affective risk response (b=0.1483, p < 0.001). Of note, the association was modified by content credibility (p = 0.039). That is, respondents who considered COVID-news on social media to be more credible (i.e., accurate, objective, up-to-date, believable, comprehensive, and authentic) were more likely to perceive the risk of the coronavirus to be higher. This made them feel more fear and anxiety about the virus, which increased their engagement in COVID-19 information seeking behaviors.
Conclusions
The study findings supported a fully mediated pathway: exposure to COVID-19 news → risk perception → risk response → information seeking behaviors, which was modified by content validity.