Explaining education-based difference in systematic processing of COVID-19 information : Insights into global recovery from infodemic

© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Information processing & management. - 1998. - 59(2022), 4 vom: 15. Juli, Seite 102989
1. Verfasser: Huang, Qing (VerfasserIn)
Weitere Verfasser: Wei, Lu
Format: Online-Aufsatz
Sprache:English
Veröffentlicht: 2022
Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk:Information processing & management
Schlagworte:Journal Article COVID-19 Current knowledge Education level Informational subjective norms Perceived information gathering capacity Systematic processing
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Systematic processing helps individuals identify misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic and serves as an individual-level measure to fight the infodemic. Highly educated people tend to engage in systematic processing more than their less educated counterparts. We follow a major part of the risk information seeking and processing (RISP) model to explicate this gap. An online survey (N = 1,568) conducted during the early stage of the pandemic in China showed that current knowledge and perceived information gathering capacity both positively mediated the association between education level and systematic processing. Although informational subjective norms were positively associated with systematic processing, we did not observe a significant difference in these norms between highly and less educated individuals. The results clarify the psychological mechanism underlying the education-based difference in systematic processing of the COVID-19 information and corroborate a relevant part of the RISP model. Moreover, our findings offer practical implications for facilitating individuals with less educational attainment to engage in systematic processing, thereby alleviating the negative impact of exposure to misinformation on them. These insights not only apply to managing the infodemic in China, but also inform the global recovery from the infodemic
Beschreibung:Date Revised 09.09.2024
published: Print-Electronic
Citation Status PubMed-not-MEDLINE
ISSN:0306-4573
DOI:10.1016/j.ipm.2022.102989