Media exposure, risk perceptions, and fear: Americans’ behavioral responses to the Ebola public health crisis
Open accessAbstract
We examined media exposure, psychological fear and worry, perceptions of risk, and health protective behaviors surrounding the 2014 Ebola virus outbreak in a probability-based, representative, national sample of Americans (N = 3447). Structural equation models examined relationships between amount (hours/day) and content (e.g., graphic images of dead bodies) of media exposure and counts of self-reported health protective behaviors that participants performed or would perform if Ebola spread to their community. Ebola-related risk perceptions and fear and worry were potential mediators. Greater total hours and more graphic media exposure positively correlated with more fear and worry; greater total hours of media exposure also positively correlated with higher perceived risk. Higher risk perceptions were associated with more health protective behaviors performed and intended. Greater fear and worry were associated with more behaviors performed. Amount and content of media exposure exhibited indirect effects on behaviors performed; amount of media exposure had indirect effects on intentions. Media may help promote health protective behaviors during public health threats; the amount and content should be congruent with threat to minimize distress and maximize resources.
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People in uncertain situations, such as disaster events or pandemics, seek information via media to alleviate negative feelings.
“a substantial body of research indeed confirms that people in uncertain situations, such as disaster events or pandemics, seek information via media to alleviate negative feelings”
From Impact of Media-Induced Uncertainty on Mental Health: Narrative-Based Perspective. (2025) · cites this paper as [145]
The Introduction (page unavailable) says people seek and obtain information through media, particularly during crises. It does not say they do so to alleviate negative feelings; the Discussion instead identifies health-protective behaviors as a possible way to alleviate fear-related distress and notes that greater media exposure may heighten fear and worry. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe pattern of extensive media exposure perpetuating stress and psychopathology is particularly characteristic of social media use.
“and this pattern is particularly characteristic of the use of social media [27,74,142-145].”
From Impact of Media-Induced Uncertainty on Mental Health: Narrative-Based Perspective. (2025) · cites this paper as [145]
The Discussion (Amount of media exposure; page unavailable) links greater media exposure with fear and worry, and the Introduction says media exposure can produce psychological distress. But the Discussion (Limitations; page unavailable) says the study combined traditional and social media, so it does not establish that the pattern is particularly characteristic of social media use or that exposure perpetuates psychopathology. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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References 83 · Cited by 24
Research works printed but not linked: 3
- [5]Gui X, Kou Y, Pine KH, Chen Y, Managing uncertainty: using social media for risk assessment during a public health crisis, in: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings, 2017-May(June 2018), 2017, pp. 4520– 4533, 10.1145/3025453.3025891.. · DOI
- [44]Kline RB, Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling (Second), The Guliford Press, 2005.
- [46]Bollen KA, Tueller S, Oberski D, Issues in the structural equation modeling of complex survey data (2013), in: Proceedings of the 59th World Statistics Congress. Hong Kong, 2013, http://www.statistics.gov.hk/wsc/STS010-P1-S.pdf.
- Authors
- Garfin, D. R., Holman, E. A., Fischhoff, B., Wong-Parodi, G., & Silver, R. C.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Irvine (US)
- Carnegie Mellon University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Garfin, Dana Rose
- Venue
- International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-07
- Volume
- 77
- Pages
- 103059
- ISSN
- 1556-5068 (ISSN-L)
- 2212-4209
- PMC
- PMC10237114
- OpenAlex
- W4293150162
- Cited by
- 24
- References
- 83
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 4
- Type
- posted content
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/legal/tdmrep-license (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/ (am, 717 d)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-017 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-037 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-012 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-029 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-004 (stm-asf)
- Locations
- SSRN Electronic Journal (publishedVersion)
- International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (1760764)
- National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (K01MD013910)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Risk Perception and Management
- Social Sciences › Communication › Public Relations and Crisis Communication
- Social Sciences › Communication › Communication and COVID-19 Impact
- Keywords
- Ebola outbreak, media exposure, risk perception, fear and worry, preventive health behavior, public health crisis, behavioral intention, 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak
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