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Is Fear of COVID-19 Contagious? The Effects of Emotion Contagion and Social Media Use on Anxiety in Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

ABSTRACT: The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become a global pandemic, causing substantial anxiety. One potential factor in the spread of anxiety in response to a pandemic threat is emotion contagion, the finding that emotional experiences can be socially spread through conscious and unconscious pathways. Some individuals are more susceptible to social contagion effects and may be more likely to experience anxiety and other mental health symptoms in response to a pandemic threat. Therefore, we studied the relationship between emotion contagion and mental health symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. We administered the Emotion Contagion Scale (ESC) along with a measure of anxiety in response to COVID-19 (modified from a previous scale designed to quantify fear of the Swine Flu outbreak) and secondary outcome measures of depression, anxiety, stress, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms. These measures were completed by a large (n = 603) student sample in the United States. Data were collected in the months of April and May of 2020 when the fear of COVID-19 was widespread. Results revealed that greater susceptibility to emotion contagion was associated with greater concern about the spread of COVID-19, more depression, anxiety, stress, and OCD symptoms. Consumption of media about COVID-19 also predicted anxiety about COVID-19, though results were not moderated by emotion contagion. However, emotion contagion did moderate the relationship between COVID-19-related media consumption and elevated OCD symptoms. Although limited by a cross-sectional design that precludes causal inferences, the present results highlight the need for study of how illness fears may be transmitted socially during a pandemic.

SUBMITTER: Wheaton MG

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7813994 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Is Fear of COVID-19 Contagious? The Effects of Emotion Contagion and Social Media Use on Anxiety in Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Wheaton Michael G MG Prikhidko Alena A Messner Gabrielle R GR

Frontiers in psychology 20210105

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become a global pandemic, causing substantial anxiety. One potential factor in the spread of anxiety in response to a pandemic threat is emotion contagion, the finding that emotional experiences can be socially spread through conscious and unconscious pathways. Some individuals are more susceptible to social contagion effects and may be more likely to experience anxiety and other mental health symptoms in response to a pandemic threat. Therefore, we s ...[more]

PMID: 33469434

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Project description:ObjectiveTo describe the impact of a strategy for international collaboration and rapid information dissemination on Twitter among the pediatric critical care community during a global pandemic.DesignAnalysis of #PedsICU and coronavirus disease 2019 Twitter data in the Symplur Signals Database between February 1, 2020, and May 1, 2020.SettingSocial media platform Twitter.PatientsNone.InterventionsPromotion of the joint usage of #PedsICU and #COVID19 throughout the international pediatric critical care community in tweets relevant to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and pediatric critical care.Measurements and main resultsWe collected data on all tweets containing the hashtag #PedsICU in addition to those containing both #PedsICU and coronavirus disease 2019 hashtags. Tweets including #PedsICU were shared 49,865 times on six continents between February 1, 2020, and May 1, 2020; between February 1 and March 13, only 8% of #PedsICU tweets included a coronavirus disease 2019 hashtag. After a sharp rise during the week of March 14, 2020, coronavirus disease 2019 content has dominated the #PedsICU conversation on Twitter, comprising 69% of both #PedsICU tweets and impressions (p < 0.001). The most commonly used coronavirus disease 2019 hashtag over the study period was #COVID19 (69%). Proportionately, a greater percentage of #PedsICU tweets including the coronavirus disease 2019 hashtag (vs not) had images or videos (45% vs 41%; p < 0.001). In addition, non-physician healthcare providers were the largest group of users (46%) of the combination of #PedsICU and coronavirus disease 2019 hashtags. The most popular tweets shared on Twitter were open-access resources, including links for updated literature, narrative reviews, and educational videos relevant to coronavirus disease 2019 clinical care. Concurrent hashtags and words in tweets containing #PedsICU and coronavirus disease 2019 hashtags spanned several different disciplines and topics in pediatric critical care.ConclusionTwitter has been used widely for real-time information sharing and collaboration among the international pediatric critical care community during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Targeted use of #PedsICU and #COVID19 for engagement on Twitter is a conduit to combat misinformation and optimize reach to pediatric critical care stakeholders across the globe when rapid dissemination is needed.

Dataset Information

Is Fear of COVID-19 Contagious? The Effects of Emotion Contagion and Social Media Use on Anxiety in Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Publications

Is Fear of COVID-19 Contagious? The Effects of Emotion Contagion and Social Media Use on Anxiety in Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

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