JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Success of behavioral interventions and policies designed to reduce the impact of COVID-19 depends on how well individuals are informed about both the consequences of infection and the steps that are needed to reduce the impact of the virus.

Objective:

To inform future policies related to critical information distribution, we investigated associations between public knowledge about COVID-19, adherence to social distancing, and public trust in government information sources (CDC), private sources (FOX, CNN), and social networks (Facebook, Twitter).

Methods:

We conducted a cross-national survey (n=1243) between April 10th –14th. The data collection was stratified by US regions and demographics to ensure the representativeness of the sample.

Results:

Government information sources were the most trusted among the public. However, there were variations in trust by age and gender. In comparison among populations, we found that more people among white and older populations expressed trust in government sources, while more people among non-white and younger populations expressed trust in private sources (e.g. CNN) and social networks (e.g. Twitter). Trust in government sources was positively associated with knowledge about COVID-19 and adherence to social distancing. However, trust in private sources (e.g. FOX, CNN) was negatively associated with knowledge about COVID-19. Similarly, trust in social networks (e.g. Facebook and Twitter) was negatively associated with both knowledge and adherence to social distancing.

Conclusions:

In the case of emergency states, such as pandemic, policymakers need to regulate the quality of information disseminated through private sources and social networks. Furthermore, when disseminating urgent health information, different information sources need to be considered to ensure that different populations have access to critical knowledge.