TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding Online Health Risk Information Seeking and Avoiding during the COVID-19 Pandemic
AU - Zhou, Xin
AU - Roberto, Anthony J.
AU - Lu, Anya Hommadova
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - This study tested the utility of the Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) model in understanding why people seek or avoid online information about COVID-19. Data collected at three different time points (i.e., February, April, and May 2020) showed the measured RISP model constructs explained between 70–78.8% of the variance for information seeking, and between 36.9–62.5% of the variance for information avoiding. Specifically, fear, information insufficiency, and relevant channel beliefs consistently predicted information seeking. Further, information insufficiency and relevant channel beliefs consistently predicted information avoidance. However, fear had no association with information avoidance. Longitudinally, the study found that within individuals, there were larger increases in most RISP model constructs between Time 1 and Time 2, and smaller changes occurred from Time 2 to Time 3. However, there was no significant change in information seeking over time.
AB - This study tested the utility of the Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) model in understanding why people seek or avoid online information about COVID-19. Data collected at three different time points (i.e., February, April, and May 2020) showed the measured RISP model constructs explained between 70–78.8% of the variance for information seeking, and between 36.9–62.5% of the variance for information avoiding. Specifically, fear, information insufficiency, and relevant channel beliefs consistently predicted information seeking. Further, information insufficiency and relevant channel beliefs consistently predicted information avoidance. However, fear had no association with information avoidance. Longitudinally, the study found that within individuals, there were larger increases in most RISP model constructs between Time 1 and Time 2, and smaller changes occurred from Time 2 to Time 3. However, there was no significant change in information seeking over time.
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U2 - 10.1080/10410236.2021.1958981
DO - 10.1080/10410236.2021.1958981
M3 - Article
C2 - 34380338
AN - SCOPUS:85112329068
SN - 1041-0236
VL - 38
SP - 532
EP - 542
JO - Health Communication
JF - Health Communication
IS - 3
ER -