A Study on the Evolution and Coping Mechanisms of Online Rumors under Public Health Emergencies: COVID-19 as An Example

COVID-19 is a public health emergency, during which the online rumors generated have had a devastating impact on the whole society. To a certain extent, the rumors reveal the long-term well-being of the public, accompanied by various complex evolutions of the vulnerable groups' crisis psychology from fear to calmness. Based on crisis psychology, this paper explored the crisis psychology and rumor evolution of the public at different stages of COVID-19, and provided coping mechanisms for coping with and preventing rumor spread. The study showed that during the shock stage of COVID-19, the COVID-19 threatened the lives of the public, triggered fear, panic and anxiety, and erupted a high number of security-based online rumors. In the mitigation stage, individuals' anxiety and fear decrease, and they are in a restored balance mentality, generating the need to return to normal life, expectation-based rumors rise and security-based rumors fall. In the resolution stage, the negative emotions of some people rise due to the influence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and people use low-frequency decompression-based online rumors to release their stress. At the same time, online rumors and crisis psychology have obvious stage characteristics and show the simultaneous resonance rule. Therefore, in the shock stage, rumor should be dispelled by authority to stabilize social emotion and reduce fear and anxiety; in the mitigation stage, big data algorithms should be used to accurately dispel rumors and deal with complex rumors; in the resolution stage, the synergistic coping mechanisms of rumor management and psychological intervention should be established.