ABSTRACT
Pendant la pandémie de COVID-19, les gouvernements et les directions de santé publique à travers le monde se sont efforcés de communiquer leurs différents messages. Leur but : inciter la population à adopter les mesures sanitaires nécessaires pour stopper la propagation du virus et diminuer les comportements inadéquats. Or, il s'avère que l'exposition aux médias et l'esprit critique ont un rôle important à jouer dans l'équation.Alternate :During the COVID-19 pandemic, governments and public health departments around the world have struggled to communicate their different messages. Their goal: to encourage the population to adopt the necessary health measures to stop the spread of the virus and reduce inappropriate behavior. However, it turns out that media exposure and critical thinking have an important role to play in the equation.
ABSTRACT
Building on the health belief model (HBM), this research tests, over six months, how the exposure to COVID-related information in the media affects fear, which in turn conditions beliefs about the severity of the virus, susceptibility of getting the virus, and benefits of safety measures. These health beliefs ultimately lead to social distancing and panic buying. As a first contribution, we find that fear is not directly triggered by the objective severity of a crisis, but rather formed over time by the way individuals are exposed to media. Second, we show that fear affects behaviors through the components of the HBM which relate to the risks/benefits of a situation. Last, we find that critical thinking about media content amplifies the "adaptive" responses of our model (e.g., health beliefs, social distancing) and reduces its "maladaptive" responses (e.g., panic buying). Interestingly, we note that the beneficial effect of critical thinking about media content disappears as the level of fear increases over time. The implications of these findings for policymakers, media companies, and theory are further discussed. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11747-022-00865-8.
ABSTRACT
La pandémie de COVID-19 a mis à rude épreuve notre capacité à nous adapter et a engendré beaucoup de stress. Cette anxiété collective a aussi eu des répercussions sur la performance au travail de bien des gens, notamment les professionnels de la vente. De quelle façon les gestionnaires peuvent-ils atténuer ces fâcheuses conséquences chez leurs employés?Alternate abstract:The COVID-19 pandemic has strained our ability to adapt and created a lot of stress. This collective anxiety has also had an impact on the work performance of many people, including sales professionals. How can managers mitigate these unfortunate consequences for their employees?