Do We Really Have to Talk about That? Avoiding COVID-19 Topics with Close Contacts

Abstract

As COVID-19 spread globally in 2020, it culminated in distress, anxiety, and uncertainty in dealing with a global health pandemic. Paramount during this period was the dissemination of accurate and updated information about COVID-19, as a means to reduce negative emotions. Close contacts also play a vital role; in disseminating information, they must ensure that they disclose their health status, to avoid infections from spreading. However, individuals may be reluctant to seek information from close contacts, due to many reasons. Accordingly, this study seeks to examine information avoidance on COVID-19 with close contacts among young adults from the perspective of the Theory of Motivated Information Management (TMIM). Specifically, we explored factors influencing COVID-19 information avoidance, including anxiety discrepancy, outcome expectancy and close contact’s target efficacy among young adults. Through a cross-sectional survey distributed online in November 2020, we targeted undergraduate students in Klang Valley, Malaysia (N = 483). Overall, the study found support for TMIM. Only two hypotheses were not supported; anxiety did not influence outcome expectancy or target efficacy. Target efficacy also mediated the relationship between outcome expectancy and information avoidance. The repercussions of these findings on TMIM, as well as other factors that may influence health information management will be deliberated.