Information-Seeking on Coronavirus Disease 2019: Communication Factors Influencing Behavioral Intention

This study examined how internal (uncertainty, susceptibility, severity, anxiety, and fear) and external motivators (descriptive norms, parasocial interaction, and identification) account for information seeking, message reception, and behavioral intentions to cope with COVID-19. A total of 500 U.S. adults’ responses were collected and analyzed. Results found that external motivators were significantly related to message reception whereas internal motivators were not. The finding that information seeking did not predict message reception implicates that both implicit and explicit confirmation processes are necessary to turn into behavioral intentions to cope with COVID-19.