Influence of Media Use, Self-Efficacy, Risk Chracteristics, and Social Trust on Optimistic Bias of COVID-19 Risk

The purpose of this study is to figure out the factors that affect optimistic bias of COVID-19 risk. This study investigated the effects of media use, interpersonal communication, and self-efficacy, risk characteristics and social trust on two dimensions of the optimistic bias, vulnerability and general risk. The finding showed that optimistic bias, in the dimension of vulnerability, was affected by mass media use(+), interpersonal communication(-), self-efficacy(+), and uncertainty(+), and optimistic bias, in the dimension of general risk, was influenced by mass media use(+) and fatality(-). Furthermore it indicated that social trust was not the significant factor of optimistic bias in both dimensions. This study suggested that mass media use, interpersonal communication and self-efficacy as well as risk characteristics were the major factors affecting optimistic bias of COVID-19 risk. Therefore, it expands a theoretical ground for how optimistic bias is created and provides a meaningful insight on how to reduce optimistic bias and to promote preventive behavior for the public healthcare practitioners.