Original Articles
Exploratory Study on the Spread of Rumors and Psychological Factors Related to COVID-19
2021 Volume 31 Issue 2 Pages 123-132
Details
2021 Volume 31 Issue 2 Pages 123-132
The current study aims to figure out factors related to “Infodemic” (spread of rumors) from the perspective of social psychology. We conducted an online survey on 2000 participants (age range: 15–59) from May 8 to May 11, 2020. We found that 88.7% of participants used TV to get information about COVID-19. It seemed that the people were relatively serious about COVID-19 information considering that they used about three information sources on average and easily did not trust information sources except for scientists. Besides, we found three results relating to infodemic. First, the extent of spreading rumors depended on what the rumors described. Our results showed that participants were aware of and trusted rumors which described victims nearby. Second, consumption of official online news media was associated with awareness of rumors. Third, infection anxiety and distrust for administration or media had an association with spreading rumors.
