Emotional responses to COVID-19 stressors increase information avoidance about an important unrelated health threat

PLOS ONE · 8 authors, 3 centres

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TL;DR

Using a nationally representative survey, this study found that emotional responses to COVID-19 stressors, such as income loss and local case counts, increased feelings of hopelessness, which in turn led to greater avoidance of information about antimicrobial resistance.

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The design linked temporally specific exposures, including county-level COVID-19 case counts and personal income loss, to self-reported feelings of hopelessness and subsequent avoidance of an informational video about antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Results showed that higher local COVID-19 case counts and personal income loss were associated with increased hopelessness, and this heightened hopelessness was a significant mediator leading to a greater likelihood of avoiding AMR information. The study population was more educated than the general US population, suggesting the estimated effects may be conservative. The findings imply that large-scale crises like pandemics may have secondary consequences by diminishing public engagement with other critical health issues through emotional pathways.

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cohort

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public health

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ORIGINAL PAPER

PMC10501669

Emotional responses to COVID-19 stressors increase information avoidance about an important unrelated health threat

PLOS ONE

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ABSTRACT

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic, like other crises, has had direct and indirect impacts on individuals, many of which have been negative. While a large body of research has examined the impacts of COVID-19 on people’s lives, there is little evidence about how COVID-19 affects decision-making broadly. Emotional responses to COVID-19-related stressors, such as illness and income loss, provide a pathway for these stressors to affect decision-making. In this study, we examine linkages between exposure to COVID-19-related stressors—focusing on temporally specific local case counts and loss of income due to the pandemic—and decisions to access information about antimicrobial resistance (AMR), another critically important health issue. COVID-19 constitutes a natural experiment in that people’s exposure to stressors does not result from those individuals’ current decisions. Using a nationally representative survey with 1223 respondents in December 2020, we linked the temporally specific COVID-19 cases and income loss experienced by participants to an increased likelihood of feeling hopeless. Higher feelings of hopelessness led to a higher probability of avoiding information about AMR. A mediation analysis confirms that emotional responses to COVID-19 stressors significantly increase information avoidance about an unrelated, but important health issue. Our results suggest that large-scale crises, like COVID-19 and climate change, may diminish action on other important health issues facing humanity.

CITATION EXPORT

Christopher R Gustafson, Kathleen R Brooks, Syed Imran Ali Meerza et al.. Emotional responses to COVID-19 stressors increase information avoidance about an important unrelated health threat. PLOS ONE. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286712

AUTHORS

8 · 3 CENTRES

Christopher R Gustafson, Kathleen R Brooks, Syed Imran Ali Meerza, Amalia Yiannaka, Christoph Strumann, Christoph Strumann, Christoph Strumann, Christoph Strumann

1Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States of America
2Department of Agriculture, Arkansas Tech University, Russellville, Arkansas, United States of America
3Universitatsklinikum Schleswig Holstein Campus Lubeck, GERMANY