IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jriskr/v21y2018i7p834-853.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Who is afraid of the Ebola outbreak? The influence of discrete emotions on risk perception

Author

Listed:
  • Janet Z. Yang
  • Haoran Chu

Abstract

The appraisal tendency framework (ATF) suggests that discrete emotions mediate the relationship between cognitive appraisals and behaviors. Based on the ATF, this study analyzed and found that fear, anger, anxiety, disgust, and sadness were positively related to the US public’s risk perception about the Ebola outbreak. Fear was also found to inhibit the degree to which systematic processing of the relevant risk information influenced participants’ support for institutional mitigation measures such as sending more health professionals to help countries in West Africa deal with the Ebola outbreak. The result partially confirms the ATF and offers important practical implications in regard to the communication of emergent public health crises.

Suggested Citation

  • Janet Z. Yang & Haoran Chu, 2018. "Who is afraid of the Ebola outbreak? The influence of discrete emotions on risk perception," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(7), pages 834-853, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jriskr:v:21:y:2018:i:7:p:834-853
    DOI: 10.1080/13669877.2016.1247378
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13669877.2016.1247378
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13669877.2016.1247378?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xiao Gu & Bojan Obrenovic & Wei Fu, 2023. "Empirical Study on Social Media Exposure and Fear as Drivers of Anxiety and Depression during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-18, March.
    2. Inger Schou-Bredal & Laila Skogstad & Tine K. Grimholt & Tore Bonsaksen & Øivind Ekeberg & Trond Heir, 2021. "Concerns in the Norwegian Population during the Initial Lockdown Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-9, June.
    3. Thomas Jamieson & Dakota Caldwell & Barbara Gomez-Aguinaga & Cristián Doña-Reveco, 2021. "Race, Ethnicity, Nativity and Perceptions of Health Risk during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the US," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-18, October.
    4. Huan Yang & Qingyun Zhao & Zhengkai Zhang & Wenxiao Jia, 2022. "Associations between Lifestyle Changes, Risk Perception and Anxiety during COVID-19 Lockdowns: A Case Study in Xi’an," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-13, October.
    5. Jian-Bin Li & An Yang & Kai Dou & Rebecca Y. M. Cheung, 2020. "Self-Control Moderates the Association Between Perceived Severity of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and Mental Health Problems Among the Chinese Public," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-10, July.
    6. Diana Tsoy & Tanin Tirasawasdichai & Konstantin Ivanovich Kurpayanidi, 2021. "Role of Social Media in Shaping Public Risk Perception during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Theoretical Review," International Journal of Management Science and Business Administration, Inovatus Services Ltd., vol. 7(2), pages 35-41, January.
    7. Fei Teng & Xijing Wang & Jiaxin Shi & Zhansheng Chen & Qianying Huang & Wanrong Cheng, 2021. "Psychosomatic Symptoms and Neuroticism following COVID-19: The Role of Online Aggression toward a Stigmatized Group," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-16, August.
    8. Huiyun Zhu, 2022. "Interplay between Discrete Emotions and Preventive Behavior in Health Crises: Big Data Analysis of COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-15, December.
    9. Yuanchao Gong & Linxiu Zhang & Yan Sun, 2021. "More than just a mental stressor: psychological value of social distancing in COVID-19 mitigation through increased risk perception—a preliminary study in China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-6, December.
    10. Bharat Barik, 2024. "Health Shocks, Risk Aversion, and Consumption Choices: Evidence from Household Intoxicant Spending in India During COVID-19," IIMA Working Papers WP 2024-01-02, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    11. Jinghong Xu & Difan Guo & Jing Xu & Chang Luo, 2023. "How Do Multiple Actors Conduct Science Communication About Omicron on Weibo: A Mixed-Method Study," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(1), pages 306-322.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jriskr:v:21:y:2018:i:7:p:834-853. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RJRR20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.