Yao Zhong, Tang Pengfei, Fan Jiarong, Luan Jing
School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing, China.
Chow Yei Ching School of Graduate Studies, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Inf Process Manag. 2021 Jul;58(4):102583. doi: 10.1016/j.ipm.2021.102583. Epub 2021 Mar 15.
The sudden outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in early 2020 has dramatically changed people's lives. Some countries have taken mass home quarantine to control the virus. However, the side effects of quarantine have rarely been interrogated by current COVID-19 research. This study thus investigates the effects of online social support on the public's beliefs in overcoming COVID-19 by embracing their cognition and emotion during the epidemic. First, by crawling and content analysis of the messages posted on "Baidu COVID-19 bar", this study identified 5 types of online social support given or received by the public during COVID-19. On this basis, a model explaining the public's beliefs was developed from the perspectives of online social support, cognition and emotion. 334 valid online questionnaires were collected to examine the proposed model and hypotheses. The results show that cognition has a direct effect on the belief, while emotion affects the belief via a full mediating effect of cognition. Tangible support and esteem support can directly affect the public's beliefs, and educational level significantly moderates these effects. In addition, the public's cognition is influenced by informational support, however, emotion is not influenced by social support but by other factors (e.g., information disclosure, material supplies and frustration caused by the epidemic). These research results provide a deep insight into how to reduce the negative effects of quarantine, consolidate the theoretical basis of the public's beliefs, and have important practical implications for individuals and the government in dealing with such emergencies.
2020年初新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19）的突然爆发极大地改变了人们的生活。一些国家采取了大规模居家隔离措施来控制病毒。然而，当前关于COVID-19的研究很少探讨隔离的副作用。因此，本研究通过在疫情期间纳入公众的认知和情感，调查在线社会支持对公众战胜COVID-19信念的影响。首先，通过对“百度COVID-19吧”上发布的信息进行爬取和内容分析，本研究确定了公众在COVID-19期间给予或获得的5种在线社会支持类型。在此基础上，从在线社会支持、认知和情感的角度构建了一个解释公众信念的模型。收集了334份有效的在线问卷来检验所提出的模型和假设。结果表明，认知对信念有直接影响，而情感通过认知的完全中介作用影响信念。实际支持和尊重支持可以直接影响公众的信念，教育水平显著调节这些影响。此外，公众的认知受信息支持的影响，然而，情感不受社会支持的影响，而是受其他因素（如信息披露、物资供应和疫情导致的挫折感）的影响。这些研究结果为如何减少隔离的负面影响、巩固公众信念的理论基础提供了深刻见解，对个人和政府应对此类突发事件具有重要的实际意义。
