Huang Qing, Wei Lu
College of Media and International Culture, Zhejiang University, 866 Yuhangtang Rd, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Inf Process Manag. 2022 Jul;59(4):102989. doi: 10.1016/j.ipm.2022.102989. Epub 2022 Jun 1.
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 ( = 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.
系统加工有助于个体在新冠疫情期间识别错误信息，并作为应对信息疫情的个体层面措施。受教育程度高的人往往比受教育程度低的人更倾向于进行系统加工。我们遵循风险信息寻求与加工（RISP）模型的主要部分来解释这一差距。在中国疫情早期进行的一项在线调查（n = 1568）显示，当前知识和感知信息收集能力均正向调节了教育水平与系统加工之间的关联。尽管信息主观规范与系统加工呈正相关，但我们并未观察到受教育程度高和低的个体在这些规范上存在显著差异。研究结果阐明了新冠疫情信息系统加工中基于教育的差异背后的心理机制，并证实了RISP模型的相关部分。此外，我们的研究结果为促进受教育程度较低的个体进行系统加工提供了实际意义，从而减轻接触错误信息对他们的负面影响。这些见解不仅适用于中国的信息疫情管理，也为全球从信息疫情中恢复提供了参考。
