Abstract
Objective: This research attempts to explore systematically factors that influence public reactions during COVID-19 pandemic, including different measures of risk perceptions, public trust in different levels of governments, and attention to news.Methods: This research uses a national stratified random sample of Chinese population and multiple linear regressions to explore the potential predictors of public reactions to coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19).Results: This research found that the effects of attentions to news, provincial experience, trust in government, demographics, and political cultures on risk perceptions depend on measures of risk perceptions, risk judgments vs. cognitive vs. affective risk perceptions. Moreover, the effect of culture on trust in government is consistent across different levels of government, trust in local, provincial, and central governments; living in the epicenter of COVID-19 in China decreases trust in local/provincial government but not trust in central government; public attention to news can bring both positive (trust in government) and negative (negative affect) outcomes. Finally, it confirmed positive associations among risk perception, subjective knowledge, and attention to news.Conclusion: The findings suggest challenges for risk communication.
Highlights
BackgroundSince COVID-19 first appeared in Wuhan in Hubei in China in January 2020, the virus has crossed borders to threaten the public health, economy, and regional stability in more than 200 countries and regions, made up of more than 124,535,520 of people infected and more than 2,738,876 people died as of 25 March 2021 [1]
Chinese Reactions to COVID-19 affective risk perception is positively correlated with while cognitive risk perception is negatively correlated with depression [4]
Dryhurst et al adopted a โholisticโ approach to model the determinants of risk perception and found that personal experience, values, trust in government, science and medical professionals, knowledge, and personal and collective efficacy were all significant predictors of risk perceptions of COVID-19 [10]
Summary
This research found that the effects of attentions to news, provincial experience, trust in government, demographics, and political cultures on risk perceptions depend on measures of risk perceptions, risk judgments vs. cognitive vs. affective risk perceptions. The effect of culture on trust in government is consistent across different levels of government, trust in local, provincial, and central governments; living in the epicenter of COVID-19 in China decreases trust in local/provincial government but not trust in central government; public attention to news can bring both positive (trust in government) and negative (negative affect) outcomes It confirmed positive associations among risk perception, subjective knowledge, and attention to news
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