Do knowledge, trust in source content, and magnitude of information influence COVID-19 risk perceptions? Comparing Ghanaian and US respondents

Esi E. Thompson

Journal of Risk Research, 2024, vol. 27, issue 2, 254-273

Abstract: Diverse outcomes from the COVID-19 pandemic from different countries raise questions about how information related factors influence judgements about the risks of the outbreak. Adopting a comparative survey approach, this study investigates whether and how, knowledge, content trust, and content magnitude are associated with COVID-19 risk perception among respondents in Ghana and the United States (n = 736) during the first phase of the pandemic (April -June 2020). Using snowball and convenience sampling strategies, the online comparative cross-sectional survey found that US respondents had higher risk perceptions, but in both countries, risk perceptions were moderate to low. The study found that those who trusted traditional media content (television, radio, and printed materials) and received high volumes of information from these sources had higher risk perceptions. Hierarchical linear regression (stepwise) indicated that income is a positive predictor of risk perceptions in both US and Ghana. However, while all three knowledge variables influenced risk perceptions in the US, only transmission knowledge influenced risk perceptions in Ghana. While trust in content from radio lowered risk perceptions, trust in content from television and printed materials increased risk perceptions in Ghana. For the US, trust in the content of printed materials led to higher risk perception. High volumes of information from printed materials increased risk perceptions in Ghana but lowered risk perceptions in the US. For pandemics that require stay-at-home orders, legacy media such as television and printed materials should be considered and utilized for information dissemination in both countries.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13669877.2024.2317319 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:jriskr:v:27:y:2024:i:2:p:254-273

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RJRR20

DOI: 10.1080/13669877.2024.2317319

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Risk Research is currently edited by Bryan MacGregor

More articles in Journal of Risk Research from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().