Perceived COVID-19 risk exposure and adoption of preventive behaviors: Social media information consumption as a moderator

• Yang Wu

  School of Journalism and Communication, Luoyang Normal University

• Xiaoying Yang

  Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, City University of Macau

• Yao Wu

  Students' Affairs Division, Luoyang Normal University

Increasing preventive behaviors is critical to mitigating the rapid spread of COVID-19, but this can be challenging as some people are reluctant to practice these behaviors. We explored the mediating role of threat appraisal in the link between perception of COVID-19 risk exposure and preventive behavior, and the moderating effect of COVID-19 information consumption through social media. We recruited 577 people in China to complete a survey. The results show that perception of COVID-19 risk exposure was positively associated with preventive behaviors and that threat appraisal partially mediated this relationship. Moreover, COVID-19 information consumption on social media moderated the mediating effect. These results provide theoretical and practical implications to increase individuals’ preventive behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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