Evolution Mechanism of Public Psychology Amidst Food Safety Emergencies

Abstract

Public psychological reaction to food safety emergencies is influenced by various factors like the destructive force of events, the influence of rumors, government intervention and public risk response ability, among which the most direct influence to public psychology is disaster information dissemination. This paper investigate the influences that panic growth rate, white noise rumor and government intervention have on public psychology amidst food safety emergencies, and propose the public psychology regulation system to cope with food safety emergencies. The goal of our research is: revealing the mutual inhibition mechanism between mass rationality and mass panic in food safety events. Our research results indicate that with the changes of mass panic growth rate, the public psychology differentiates into two steady states (mass panic and public numbness) and one unsteady state (mass rationality state). Meanwhile, mass panic and public numbness leap to change at the saddle node bifurcation points, and there exists a lagging effect.