The Effects of Information-Seeking Behaviors on Risk Perception During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Correlational Survey

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus represents an ongoing public health challenge that necessitates a heightened need to understand people's risk perceptions as well as their information-seeking behavior. Objective: The aim of this study is to explore the impact of different information-seeking behaviors on people's risk perceptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We employed convenience sampling in order to administer questionnaires to 3048 residents in Hunan Province, China. After screening the questionnaires for inclusion in the study, multiple linear regressions were then used to analyze the impact of the characteristics of respondents' information-seeking behavior on their risk perceptions. Results: From the 3048 distributed 2611 were included. New media (80.20%) was the most frequently used source of information seeking, and traditional media were participants' most trusted source of COVID-19 information. Statistics of COVID-19 were the type of information most frequently queried by respondents, and approximately 30.0% of them reported that most or all of the COVID-19 information they sought was negative. Approximately one in five respondents reported that they sought COVID-19 information more than 10 times per day. The results of our multivariate linear regression analysis showed that "seeking information from new media ", "level of trust in new media and local propaganda", "information content being about protective behaviors and personal related information", "proportion of negative information", and "frequency of information seeking" were positively associated, and "seeking information from traditional media" and "level of trust in traditional media" were negatively associated with people's risk perception of COVID-19. Conclusion: We find that specific types of channels of information acquisition and public trust in these information channels, their informational content, and proportion of negative information, as well as a frequency of information seeking all had an impact on risk perception during COVID-19.