Population anxiety and positive behaviour change during the COVID-19 epidemic: Cross-sectional surveys in Singapore, China and Italy

Jane M Lim; Zaw Myo Tun; Vishakha Kumar; Sharon Quaye; Vittoria Offeddu; Alex R Cook; May Oo Lwin; Shaohai Jiang; Clarence C Tam

The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.14.20065862 doi: medRxiv preprint While concerns have been raised about the potential for social media and messaging platforms to disseminate misinformation, we did not find strong or consistent evidence in our surveys that information obtained through these platforms increased anxiety or resulted in less positive behavioural responses. This could reflect a bias in the sample of participants who chose to respond to the survey, but could also indicate the fact that these platforms can have both positive and negative influences. While many respondents used these platforms for information, they were not generally regarded as the most trustworthy information sources, suggesting that individuals may not necessarily act solely on information received through social media. However, a large fraction of respondents reported receiving unsolicited information through these platforms. We were unable to capture details on the content of this information, so cannot make conclusions about its accuracy. Despite this, a concerning number of respondents reported that they received advertisements about purported treatments for COVID-19.