Understanding public protective behavioural intention during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Moderating effects of proxy efficacy and collective efficacy

Abstract

AbstractPublic efficacy beliefs against COVID‐19 might affect a person's coping strategy toward infection control. This study presented a synthetic conceptual model based on the Integrative Model of Behavioural Prediction (IMBP). We examined inductively the relationships among media exposure, efficacy beliefs, attribution of responsibilities and recommended protective behavioural intention using a survey of 435 participants who experienced the epidemic in China. Results suggest that traditional media exposure could stably and consistently enhance people's self‐efficacy, collective efficacy as well as proxy efficacy, whereas social media exposure only increases the degree of self‐efficacy. Furthermore, we detect that protective behavioural intention is directly affected by self‐efficacy and indirectly affected by collective efficacy and proxy efficacy via the mediation of self‐efficacy. At the same time, the influence of self‐efficacy on attribution of responsibilities and protective behaviours can be moderated by collective efficacy and proxy efficacy, respectively.