Factors Influencing Rumour Re-Spreading in a Public Health Crisis by the Middle-Aged and Elderly Populations

Zhonggen Sun, Xin Cheng, Ruilian Zhang and Bingqing Yang
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Zhonggen Sun: School of Public Administration, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, Jiangsu, China
Xin Cheng: School of Public Administration, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, Jiangsu, China
Ruilian Zhang: Sustainable Minerals Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia
Bingqing Yang: School of Public Administration, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, Jiangsu, China

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 18, 1-14

Abstract: Due to discrimination and media literacy, middle-aged and elderly individuals have been easily reduced to marginalized groups in the identification of rumours during a public health crisis and can easily spread rumours repeatedly, which has a negative impact on pandemic prevention and social psychology. To further clarify the factors influencing their behaviours, this study used a questionnaire to survey a sample of 556 individuals in China and used multiple linear regression and analysis of variance to explore influencing factors during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We found that, first, in the COVID-19 pandemic, middle-aged and elderly adults’ willingness to re-spread rumours is positively related to their degree of believing rumours and to personal anxiety and is negatively related to their rumour-discrimination ability and to their perception of serious consequences to rumour spreading. Second, the degree of believing rumours plays an intermediary role in the willingness to re-spread rumours. It plays a partial mediating role in the path of anxiety’s influence on behaviour, suggesting that an anxious person will spread a rumour even if he or she does not have a strong belief in the rumour. Third, interpersonal communication has a greater credibility and a greater willingness to re-spread than does mass communication. This suggests the importance of increasing public knowledge expertise and of reducing public panic. This also has important implications for the future design of public health policies.

Keywords: COVID-19; middle-aged and elderly group; rumours spreading; influencing factors; social impacts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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