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Health Care Science 2023, 2(1): 25-35 https://doi.org/10.1002/hcs2.13
Original Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 06 September 2022

Investigating the relationships between emotional experiences and behavioral responses amid the Covid‐19 pandemic: A cross‐sectional survey

Show Author's Information Tingting Wang1,  Xin Zheng2,  Zhaomeng Niu3,  Pengwei Hu4,  Ruiqi Dong5 ( ),  Zhihan Tang6
School of Business, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
School of Business, Sun Yat‐Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
Merck China Innovation Hub, Shanghai, China
Fordham University, New York, New York, USA
Medical College, University of South China, Hengyang, Hunan, China
Keywords:
information sharing, Covid‐19, discrete emotions, information seeking, preventive health behaviors, stockpiling
Cite this article:
Wang T, Zheng X, Niu Z, et al. Investigating the relationships between emotional experiences and behavioral responses amid the Covid‐19 pandemic: A cross‐sectional survey. Health Care Science, 2023, 2(1): 25-35. https://doi.org/10.1002/hcs2.13
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Abstract Full text About this article

The Covid‐19 pandemic produced a complex combination of intense negative emotions among the general public, influencing people's coping reactions toward the pandemic. Yet each discrete emotion may affect people's behaviors in different ways. Unveiling the specific emotion–behavior relationships can provide valuable implications for designing effective intervention programs. Through the lens of the appraisal theory of emotion, we assessed the relationships between negative emotions and pandemic‐related behaviors among the Chinese population midst the early outbreak of the pandemic. An anonymous online survey was distributed to mainland Chinese participants (n = 2976), which assessed individuals' emotional states and behavioral reactions to the pandemic. Consistent with the differential appraisal theme underlying each negative emotion as delineated by the appraisal theory, mixed relationships between emotions and pandemic‐related behaviors were revealed. Specifically, anxiety was positively associated with behaviors of seeking pandemic‐related information, sharing such information, and stockpiling preventive goods, yet, contrary to prediction, anxious people were reluctant to adopt preventive measures, which is maladaptive. Sad people sought information less frequently and exhibited lower intention to stockpile preventive goods; but, opposing prediction, they shared information less frequently. Angry people were more active in sharing information and in stockpiling preventive goods. These findings suggest that public health practitioners can utilize the emotion–behavior relationships to identify the vulnerable individuals who tend to adopt maladaptive coping behaviors, help them address emotional distress, and encourage their adoption of effective coping behaviors.


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About this article

Investigating the relationships between emotional experiences and behavioral responses amid the Covid‐19 pandemic: A cross‐sectional survey

Show Author's information Tingting Wang1, Xin Zheng2, Zhaomeng Niu3, Pengwei Hu4, Ruiqi Dong5 ( ), Zhihan Tang6
School of Business, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
School of Business, Sun Yat‐Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
Merck China Innovation Hub, Shanghai, China
Fordham University, New York, New York, USA
Medical College, University of South China, Hengyang, Hunan, China

Abstract

The Covid‐19 pandemic produced a complex combination of intense negative emotions among the general public, influencing people's coping reactions toward the pandemic. Yet each discrete emotion may affect people's behaviors in different ways. Unveiling the specific emotion–behavior relationships can provide valuable implications for designing effective intervention programs. Through the lens of the appraisal theory of emotion, we assessed the relationships between negative emotions and pandemic‐related behaviors among the Chinese population midst the early outbreak of the pandemic. An anonymous online survey was distributed to mainland Chinese participants (n = 2976), which assessed individuals' emotional states and behavioral reactions to the pandemic. Consistent with the differential appraisal theme underlying each negative emotion as delineated by the appraisal theory, mixed relationships between emotions and pandemic‐related behaviors were revealed. Specifically, anxiety was positively associated with behaviors of seeking pandemic‐related information, sharing such information, and stockpiling preventive goods, yet, contrary to prediction, anxious people were reluctant to adopt preventive measures, which is maladaptive. Sad people sought information less frequently and exhibited lower intention to stockpile preventive goods; but, opposing prediction, they shared information less frequently. Angry people were more active in sharing information and in stockpiling preventive goods. These findings suggest that public health practitioners can utilize the emotion–behavior relationships to identify the vulnerable individuals who tend to adopt maladaptive coping behaviors, help them address emotional distress, and encourage their adoption of effective coping behaviors.

Keywords: information sharing, Covid‐19, discrete emotions, information seeking, preventive health behaviors, stockpiling

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Publication history

Received: 26 May 2022
Accepted: 17 July 2022
Published: 06 September 2022
Issue date: February 2023

Copyright

© 2022 The Authors. Health Care Science published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. on behalf of Tsinghua University Press.

Acknowledgements

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71802198), University of South China Covid‐19 epidemic prevention and control scientific research emergency project (2020‐2‐5), Hunan province 2020 innovative province construction special topic to combat Covid‐19 epidemic emergency (2020SK3010), and Major Program of the National Social Science Foundation of China (No. 21ZDA036).

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