Psychological antecedents of COVID-19 information sharing within strong-tie and weak-tie networks

This study investigates the psychological mechanisms underlying people's sharing of COVID-19 information within their strong-tie networks and weak-tie networks.

A cross-sectional online survey was conducted between March and April 2020 (N = 609 Chinese adults). Measures included emotions and behavioral beliefs about COVID-19 information sharing, risk perceptions, and COVID-19 information acquisition and sharing behaviors. Multiple linear regression was performed to examine the psychological predictors of COVID-19 information sharing.

People were more likely to share COVID-19 information within their strong-tie networks when they experienced more negative emotions (β = .09, p = .01) and had stronger beliefs that information sharing would promote disease prevention (β = .12, p = .004). By comparison, negative emotions were the only significant predictor of COVID-19 information sharing (β = .12, p = .002) within weak-tie networks (β = .04, p = .31 for beliefs about sharing).

People may share COVID-19 information within weak-tie networks to cope with negative emotions regardless of whether they perceive information sharing as beneficial to disease prevention.

Health educators should raise people's awareness of the psychological motivators of COVID-19 information sharing to create a healthy information environment for disease prevention.