Daily Effects of COVID-19 News on Personal Protective Behaviors Through COVID-19 Anxiety: The Significance of Direct Wuhan Epidemic Experience

BackgroundDrawing on cognitive appraisal theory, this study investigates the effect of daily COVID-19 news on daily anxiety and protective behaviors (e.g., wearing masks and washing hands). This study proposes that such processes, leading to self-protection, are highly likely when individuals have directly experienced the Wuhan epidemic at the beginning of 2020, which is the most serious COVID-19 outbreak in history.MethodsThe positive effect of daily COVID-19 news on daily protective behaviors through daily COVID-19 anxiety was examined in this study, which was hypothesized to be accentuated by direct Wuhan epidemic experience. An online survey based on the experience sample method (ESM) was conducted during the COVID-19 epidemic in Hebei Province, China, at the beginning of 2021, in which 82 working adults participated in a daily survey for five consecutive days. Once a day during the five-day period, the participants reported their daily COVID-19 news exposure, daily COVID-19 anxiety, and daily protective behaviors. Wuhan epidemic experience was measured by the place of residence of the participants during the 2020 Wuhan epidemic through a separate general survey conducted before the ESM survey.ResultsAnalysis of 392 day-level data confirmed the positive link between daily COVID-19 news and daily protective behaviors, mediated by daily COVID-19 anxiety (b = 0.03, SE = 0.01, p = 0.018). Furthermore, the mediated effect was significant for the participants with direct COVID-19 experience in Wuhan in 2020 (b = 0.05, SE = 0.03, p = 0.041) but not significant for those without direct experience in Wuhan (b = 0.01, SE = 0.01, p = 0.461). Thus, the results confirmed the positive moderating role of Wuhan epidemic experience.ConclusionsThe analysis reveals the psychological mechanism through which COVID-19 information promotes self-protection measures to control the infectious disease and highlights the importance of direct COVID-19 experience in generating such an effect.