Dynamics of changes in the psychosocial characteristics of online media consumers under the influence of official information and rumors about COVID-19

Li Inin ORCID: 0000-0001-6444-7627 Postgraduate student, Department of Digital Media Communications, St. Petersburg State University 199225, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Vadim Shefner str., 10 yingyingli2701@outlook.com

Introduction. The relevance of the study lies in understanding how rumors spread in the online environment affect public consciousness, psychological states and communicative behavior of users during the infodemia period. The development of online media has contributed to the intensification of public participation and dissemination of information about emergencies in society, and the dissemination of information through social media and online participation in dialogue have significantly expanded the discussion of topics related to emergencies in the field of health. Online media has become an important channel for the dissemination of information and a good platform for public participation in thematic discussions and provided access to important information. The occurrence of emergencies is often accompanied by rumors, such as the Ebola epidemic in 2014 ^[12] coronavirus pneumonia ^[13]. Although the epidemic of new coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19), which appeared in 2019, has passed, the infodemia, which is its secondary negative consequence, has turned into a global pandemic ^[4]. Because during the COVID-19 pandemic, network media became the most affected party from the spread of rumors ^[2]. Moreover, rumors are a reflection of socio–psychological reality ^[14]. Thus, the research on this topic has practical significance, since it helps to understand how social psychology interacts with the spread of online rumors in the context of infodemia. The results of such a study can be useful for developing strategies for shaping public opinion, combating disinformation and creating effective mechanisms for controlling information in the online environment.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the psychological state and behavior of Internet users spreading online rumors during the infodemia caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The novelty of the research lies in the analysis of the cognitive and emotional reactions of the mass audience to the flow of information. This enriches our understanding of the relationship between online user behavior and the spread of disinformation, providing an opportunity for a deeper understanding of the need to develop effective strategies to counter rumors in the online space.

In connection with the above, the task is to study the psychological state of Network users based on changes in the time series of the spread of online rumors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Method. The study uses Internet monitoring and statistical analysis. Based on such characteristics as high authority, a large amount of content and clear deadlines, information published from January 01, 2020 to March 31, 2020 on two portals "Joint Chinese Internet Platform for combating Fakes" and the official account "Weibo refutation" was chosen as the object of research. The sample is solid. All information about the COVID-19 pandemic, marked on portals as "rumors", is included in the analysis. Based on the selection criteria, 604 reliable online rumors were collected, with an average of 6.63 new rumors added every day. The author compiled a catalog of rumors and classified the collected rumors into four categories: rumors about government policy, rumors about health care, rumors about social life and rumors about famous experts.

The results of the study. Among the collected reliable research samples, the largest share is 278 rumors in the category of health protection; followed by 185 rumors in the category of public policy; 90 rumors in the category of social life, which is about 15%; and the smallest number of rumors is in the category of well–known experts, where only 51 rumors were registered.

Compared to previous emergencies (for example, earthquakes and fires), during the COVID-19 pandemic, network rumors had clear features. First of all, there were the most rumors in the health protection category, much more than in the other three categories. This reflects the basic need of society to protect health during pandemic outbreaks. Secondly, there are significantly more rumors in the government policy category than in the other two categories, reflecting the strong need for public disclosure of government information. Thirdly, the rumors in the celebrity category mainly concern medical/research workers. Fourthly, the category of social life is dominated by the flight of patients, which, on the one hand, may reflect the fear of losing control over the pandemic, and on the other hand, confirms the hypothesis of L. Festinger, who studies psychological processes, about cognitive dissonance, i.e. rumors do not increase anxiety, but confirm it ^{[9, p. 39]}.

To analyze the specifics of changing the psychological state of users under the influence of pandemic network rumors, 91 days of the study period were divided into four segments in combination with the law of time change: the initial manifestation stage (from January 1 to January 24), the outbreak stage (from January 25 to February 15), the peak stage (from February 16 to 10 March) and the regression stage (from March 11 to March 31).

According to the analysis, the number of new rumors per day at the initial rumor stage was 2.58. The average daily number of new rumors was the largest at the outbreak stage (9.77 articles per day), and after a short regression stage after the outbreak stage, the number of new rumors quickly peaked (8.04 articles per day). From mid-March to the end of March 2020, the number of rumors decreased and decreased over time, with an average of 6.38 new rumors per day, which is lower than the average number of new rumors added over the entire study period.

Based on the above time series, the psychosocial characteristics of network users are analyzed through indicators of four categories of network rumors at each stage separately.

1. Characteristics of the four categories of online rumors about the COVID-19 pandemic and the corresponding psychological state of the audience

Rumors about government policy are mostly concentrated in the outbreak and peak stages. High-frequency words for the outbreak stage and before it were "city closure", "disinfection" and "road closure"; high-frequency words for the peak stage were "alcohol" and "masks"; high-frequency words for the regression stage were "the beginning of school". There are many factors that cause mood swings in society during emergencies related to public health, and government information is considered by the public as a very important and useful resource ^[1]. In a pandemic outbreak, government communication with the public has a greater impact on social psychology, and the public often uses the effectiveness of government crisis communication to assess the degree of importance that the government attaches to the public ^[13]. The analysis of keywords showed that the need of network users for state control at an early stage of the pandemic, their need for a sense of security at the peak stage, as well as their expectations about the resumption of work and production in the regression stage. However, with the help of the Internet, rumors about information policy can increase people's dissatisfaction with the existing political system. Thus, the effectiveness of policy-based rumors in communicating with the public can affect social psychology and public behavior. Such rumors reduce the sense of political trust among citizens, including distrust of the style and behavior of those in power, distrust of the administrative capabilities of the government, distrust of relevant regulations and policies, etc. ^[3].

The largest number of rumors in the "health protection" category occurred at the outbreak and peak stages. Russian scientists such as D. I. Sadykov and N. A. Akhmetyanova, E. I. Rasskazova and A. Sh. Tehostov note that rumors most actively appear and spread during times of social anxiety, crises and when faced with something new ^{[7, 8]}. The difference between the high-frequency words of rumors about health protection on There were no different stages, mostly rumors related to "prevention", "treatment", "infection" and "masks". Among them were rumors that certain medicines, foods, condiments, drinks, fruits, etc. can "prevent" and "treat" viruses, and there were also a large number of rumors about the quality of "masks" and their protective functions. Rumors are popular among the population for a reason, but they are influenced by a complex social context and psychology. At the same time, the public knew little about the new coronavirus, so people's "ignorance" before COVID-19 became a hotbed of rumors and false claims ^[2]. According to the analysis of high-frequency words, it is clear that users have an urgent need for knowledge about protection and treatment, and the spread of rumors indicates that people have a mentality like "a drowning man who clutches at straws."

Rumors related to the category of social life arise smoothly and in relatively small numbers. However, such rumors serve to help the public understand the current state of events and the risk ^[6]. Although the number of rumors in this category is small, they are closely related to everyday life and have far-reaching consequences. The high-frequency words at and before the outbreak stage were "infected" and "(infected person) is running"; the high-frequency words at the peak stage were "outbreak"; there were no obvious high-frequency words at the regression stage. At the beginning of the outbreak, netizens showed strong panic about the infection, which was exacerbated by their increased sensitivity to other social emergencies.

Rumors about famous experts not only appear more often at the flash and peak stage, but also at the regression stage. Well-known experts of the society are often leaders of public opinion. Opinion leaders are activists in groups and have a high degree of influence. Most of the rumors spread on the topics of "infection", "death" and "salvation". Rumors with the keywords "infection" and "death" are usually associated with politicians, sports and entertainment stars, researchers and medical professionals, while rumors with the keyword "salvation" are mainly associated with researchers and medical professionals. Such rumors may be the result of rumor publishers' attempts to attract attention, but also reflect netizens' fear of the global spread of the virus, as well as mass's desire for medical researchers to save humanity.

2. Features of psychosocial characteristics of users in the four stages of the coronavirus pandemic

Based on the four stages of rumor spreading and four categories of rumors, the psychological state of netizens during the pandemic was classified according to one of them: the latent stage, the panic stage, the stage of finding balance and the stage of recovery, which corresponded to the four stages of rumor spreading. Since there were few rumors at the initial (latent) stage of manifestation and the psychosocial characteristics of the audience did not have obvious outlines, the focus is on the stage of panic, the stage of finding balance and the stage of recovery.

The panic stage appeared on the third day after the Chinese city of Wuhan was sealed off. The emergence of the panic stage is closely related to the message that "Chinese academician Zhong Nanshan confirms that the virus can be transmitted from person to person," which is a concentrated manifestation of various psychological contradictions after the sudden outbreak of the pandemic. From the point of view of social psychology, G. Allport and L. Postman formulated the "basic law of rumors" in 1947, reflecting the dependence of the intensity of rumors on the importance of events and the ambiguity of information about them ^{[5, p. 139]}. The ambiguity of the situation at this stage is high, many issues require clarification, in addition, the incident poses a great threat to the personal interests of the population, since a viral infection is life-related. Therefore, at the stage of panic, almost all the psychosocial elements necessary for the spread of rumors are present, and the population in a short time perceives the urgency, importance, uncertainty and high risk of the event. However, Norwegian scientist Gisela Boehm and German scientist Hans-R?diger Pfister, based on the model of the dual process of cognition and emotions, believe that the perception of the outcome of an event caused by rumors will cause fear and anxiety ^[10]. Rumors are growing during this period due to the fears and concerns of netizens about the risk of possible and known consequences. In modeling news content, this point must be used. Emotions are a direct psychological driving force that causes fear in netizens.

The stage of searching for balance came after the massive outbreak of the epidemic in China. At this stage, there was a large amount of information that was difficult to distinguish from the truth. Moreover, in conditions of information overload, infodemia has developed in the confusing flow of information. Under the influence of the "information cocoon", readers will feel a little calm when they receive any positive information. On the contrary, exposure to any negative information will make netizens feel overly negative and pessimistic ^[11]. For example, readers use the rumor that "the virus will automatically disappear in the summer" as a psychological limitation and condemn rumors of unfair treatment of Dr. Lee, the discoverer of the outbreak. In addition, some users spread rumors and claimed that the epidemic would not have escalated into such an uncontrollable situation if not for the incompetence of the government, while criticizing officials for neglecting the life and death of people and actions aimed only at their own benefit and achieving a personal political career. Thus, rumors at this stage helped netizens to seek complacency, while at the same time stimulating a sense of injustice among the public. In addition, they provoked public anger towards the government, as a result of which trust in the government was lost, and the authority of the government was questioned ^[3].

The recovery stage came about a month after the large-scale outbreak in China. Over time, the outbreak is better controlled, there is more positive information that gives people confidence and hope to overcome the outbreak. During this period, people were less sensitive to perceived risks, more confident in what was happening and psychologically calmer.

In general, during the pandemic, the user of the network went through four stages of psychological changes. The incubation period will not be repeated. During the panic stage, netizens showed fear and anxiety caused by the perception of risk. At the stage of the search for balance, the audience demonstrated anger towards the government and various psychological checks intertwined in the pursuit of balance. During the recovery phase, the population demonstrated a sense of control, which was further enhanced by spreading rumors to satisfy psychological comfort.

Conclusion. According to the average daily number of new rumors about the COVID-19 pandemic and the development of the epidemic, online rumors during the pandemic can be divided into four stages: the initial manifestation stage, the outbreak stage, the peak stage and the regression stage. At the same time, online rumors during the pandemic can be divided into four categories, in descending order of the number of rumors, namely: rumors about government policy, rumors about health care, rumors about social life and rumors about famous experts. Among them, the number of rumors in the first two categories was significantly higher than in the last two categories, indicating that the public was most demanding health protection and disclosure of government information, as well as reflecting the hope and public recognition of medical and scientific resistance to the epidemic. The psychological development of netizens is divided into four stages: the latent stage, the panic stage, the stage of finding balance and the recovery stage. At different stages of the spread of rumors, the population demonstrates different basic psychological needs. The main manifestations are fear and anxiety at the stage of panic, the intertwining of various emotional states at the stage of searching for mental balance and gradual psychological calming at the stage of recovery.

The emergence of online rumors is related to the psychology of network users in combination with the social environment in which they live, and their own emotions, combined with rumors, can easily lead to the generation of even more rumors and their spread. Especially in political topics, the audience's own political position and political motives are used or combined with Internet rumors in an attempt to achieve specific political goals and their own interests, which harms national political security. Decisive government measures and timely release of information help to stabilize people's consciousness and reduce the number of rumors. The creation and improvement of an information dissemination system and the acceleration of the release or clarification of information in response to basic public requests at various stages are expected to play an important role in effectively suppressing rumors on the Internet. In conclusion, it should be noted that the study of the patterns of the spread of rumors, an attempt to build categories of rumors, as well as segmentation of time series and generalization of socio-psychological characteristics of the public will help the relevant departments to develop measures to combat the spread of rumors in the context of infodemia.