Information Seeking and Avoidance in the Covid-19 Pandemic as a Function of Political Ideology and National Context

A Survey Comparing the US and Germany

Datos Bibliográficos

ID21616461
AutoresHelena Bilandzic (0000-0002-9694-9653, University of Augsburg, autor de correspondencia), Jessica Gall Myrick (0000-0001-9944-5138, Pennsylvania State University)
Año2024
Volumen39
Número11
Páginas2276-2289
Fecha de publicación2024-09-18
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaHealth Communication (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1041-0236 • E-ISSN: 1532-7027
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10410236.2023.2263220
PMID37798832
OpenAlexW4387391979
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas49

The COVID-19 pandemic sparked a globally heightened need for scientific information. At the same time, the abundance of information led to tendencies of media fatigue and information avoidance. Both information seeking and avoidance are embedded in a specific national context, in which conditions of and measures against the pandemic may differ dramatically. In addition, the pandemic quickly became entangled with political ideology. Using the Risk Information Seeking and Processing Model (RISP) as a theoretical background, we investigate the role of national context and political ideology for information seeking and avoidance in a comparative survey in the U.S. and Germany during the early phase of the pandemic. Results show that the factors predicting information behavior are effective in both countries with only few differences: In both countries, perceived hazard characteristics, information norms and perceived information gathering capacity were related to higher information seeking and lower information avoidance. Ideology too is an important influence: Right-leaning ideology was associated with lower levels of information norms in both countries; but only in the US was right-leaning ideology connected to less perceived hazard characteristics and less negative affective responses. Results are discussed regarding their implications for the RISP model

Geography · German · Ideology · Information seeking · Pandemic · Political science · Politics · Computer Science · Law · Media Influence and Health · Medicine · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Psychology · Public Relations and Crisis Communication · Social Psychology