Risk Perception and Preventive Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic : Testing the Effects of Government Trust and Information Behaviors

ABSTRACT

Given the absence of COVID-19 treatments, the best way to control the spread of the virus is to break the chain of infection by increasing public participation in preventive behaviors recommended by health authorities. This study proposes a moderated mediation model of information behaviors (e.g. information seeking and information verification) and trust in government that explores the relationship between risk perception and preventive behaviors regarding COVID-19. Using a survey study in South Korea, we conducted the moderated mediation analysis with latent moderated structural equation modeling (LMS). We found serial mediation effects for risk perception, information behaviors, and preventive behaviors, as people both seek out information and verify that information before adopting preventive behaviors. Additionally, trust in government moderated information behaviors in the relationship between risk perception and preventive behaviors, suggesting that trust in government encourages people to adopt more preventive actions via information seeking and information verification. Further implications are discussed to promote public understanding of the health crisis and public participation in preventive measures.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This survey was executed by a private data collection company which recruits and maintains a panel of potential survey respondents through volunteers, recommendations, and various types of affiliations, as well as from respondents who consent to participate in studies by telephone or face-to-face interviews for strictly research-only purposes. It manages a general panel representative of the overall South Korea population as well as specialized panels segmented by participants’ socio-demographic profile data. In exchange for participation, respondents received points that they could redeem for rewards worth approximately $3.00.

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Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.