The Infectious Disease Threat (IDT) Appraisal Model: How Perceptions of IDT Predictability and Controllability Predict Individuals’ Responses to Risks

Effects of Individuals' Cultural Orientations and Trust in Government Health Communication Sources on Behavioral Intentions During a Pandemic: A Cross-Country Study

Public health messages disseminated by trusted government authorities are likely to have more influence over individuals' intentions and behaviors. However, individuals worldwide have different levels of trust in government authorities, which leads to varying levels of compliance intentions. Additionally, these trust levels may vary during major public crises, such as pandemics. Based on a COVID-19 pandemic communication survey (N = 3,065) disseminated throughout six countries (Australia, Finland, Italy, South Korea, Sweden, and the United States), this study examined the association among trust in distinct government sources, cultural orientations, and health behavioral intentions. Findings indicated that trust in official health communication sources at four governmental levels (i.e. national government, the head of the national government, the national health authority, and the chief representative of the national health authority) was related to vaccination intentions and other behavioral compliance intentions (i.e. willingness to prevent COVID-19 infection in other ways). Meanwhile, these direct associations were mediated by the cultural orientations of power distance and uncertainty avoidance. Findings also revealed that the direct association of trust in government sources and the indirect relationship through the above cultural orientations varied by country. This study offers insight into the important role of credible sources and individuals' cultural orientations in the domain of health communication aimed at influencing behavioral intentions.

Coping with outbreaks: Toward an infectious disease threat (IDT) appraisal model for risk communication

Through an online, nationally representative survey (N = 1,164), this study examines how individuals perceive and cope with infectious disease outbreaks. Findings inform risk and crisis communication strategies for health organizations. This study explored how individuals' threat appraisals (perceived controllability, perceived predictability, and perceived responsibility) and their cognitive (i.e., information seeking) and conative coping (i.e., protective actions) differ by infectious disease threat (IDT) type (i.e. airborne, bloodborne, foodborne, sexually-transmitted, waterborne, or zoonotic/vectorborne) in epidemic situations. Findings revealed that IDT types varied significantly based on individuals' appraisals of predictability, controllability, and responsibility for different disease types. Across all disease types, predictability was the most impactful factor related to participants' information seeking and planned protective action taking.

(Mis)communicating about COVID-19: Insights from Health and Crisis Communication

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges for the United States and the world. In this article, we discuss several communication challenges that have arisen during the pandemic, with insights from the fields of health and crisis communication. We focus in particular on the lack of clarity in the US response in terms of both what behaviors we are trying to change and how we are communicating about behavior change. While the mixed messages and contradictions have hampered the US response thus far, it is our hope that we will do better going forward. This will require state and local health departments, public health organizations, and all of us to increasingly apply our field's best practices to help calm fears, change behavior, and ultimately reduce suffering and save lives.