“Do we really have to talk about that?”: avoiding covid-19 topics with close contacts

• Main Authors: Tengku Mohd Azzman, Tengku Siti Aisha, A. Manaf, Aini Maznina, Syed Zainuddin, Sharifah Sofiah
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: Asian Media Information and Communication Center (AMIC) 2022
• Subjects: H Social Sciences (General); H61.8 Communication of information
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/97839/7/97839_Do%20we%20really%20have%20to%20talk%20about%20that; http://irep.iium.edu.my/97839/; http://www.asia.amic

As COVID-19 spread globally in 2020, it caused panic and uncertainty. As of September 2021, there were 1.9 million confirmed cases in Malaysia, with over 20,000 deaths (WHO, 2021). Government officials, front liners and health agencies worked tirelessly to manage the pandemic, by spreading awareness, enforcing SOP, and encouraging vaccination. Paramount during this period was dissemination of accurate and updated information about COIVD-19, whether through mediated or interpersonal platforms. Close contacts have a responsibility in making sure they disclose their health status to others and get tested to ensure that the infection does not spread in their local communities. Avoiding honest disclosures of COVID-19 status could be detrimental to others. Accordingly, this study will examine how individuals interact with close contacts and choose to avoid topics related to COVID-19, from the perspective of Theory of Motivated Information Management (TMIM). TMIM has been applied in various health contexts to understand information avoidance, including avoiding conversations on end-of-life preferences with spouses (Rafferty et al., 2014), or sexual health topics with romantic partners (Tannebaum, 2015). In this study, we explore factors that could influence COVID-19 information avoidance, such as anxiety, uncertainty discrepancy, outcome expectancy, and close contact’s target efficacy. Using a cross-sectional survey among young adults in Malaysia, an online survey was distributed among the respondents (N = 483). Overall, two hypotheses were not supported; anxiety is not significantly related to outcome expectancy or target efficacy. Target efficacy also mediates the relationship between outcome expectancy and information avoidance. The repercussion of these findings on TMIM, as well as factors that may influence health information management will be discussed.