This study examines the emotional mechanisms of how public trust in the governments’ actions to address the COVID-19 pandemic shapes individuals’ risk information-seeking and avoidance. To make cross-cultural comparisons, we conducted a multi-country survey early in the pandemic in South Korea, the United States (US) and Singapore. The results suggest that trust was negatively related to fear, anger, sadness and anxiety, and positively related to hope. These emotions were significant mediators of the effect of trust on information seeking and avoidance, except for anger on avoidance. Importantly, the indirect effects of trust in government varied by country. Fear was a stronger mediator between trust and information seeking in South Korea than in the US. In contrast, sadness and anger played more prominent mediating roles in Singapore than in South Korea. This study offers theoretical insights into better understanding the roles of discrete emotions in forming information behaviors. The findings of this study also inform communication strategies that seek to navigate trust in managing pandemics that impact multiple nations.

本研究考察了公众对政府应对 COVID-19 大流行行动的信任如何影响个人寻求和避免风险信息的情绪机制。为了进行跨文化比较，我们在大流行初期在韩国、美国（美国）和新加坡进行了一项多国调查。结果表明，信任与恐惧、愤怒、悲伤和焦虑呈负相关，与希望呈正相关。除了愤怒对回避的影响外，这些情绪是信任对信息寻求和回避影响的重要中介。重要的是，对政府信任的间接影响因国家而异。与美国相比，在韩国，恐惧在信任和信息寻求之间起到了更强的中介作用。相比之下，与韩国相比，新加坡的悲伤和愤怒起到了更突出的中介作用。这项研究为更好地理解离散情绪在形成信息行为中的作用提供了理论见解。这项研究的结果还为寻求在管理影响多个国家的流行病方面建立信任的沟通策略提供了信息。