Risk sharing on Twitter: Social amplification and attenuation of risk in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic

Social media trust and sharing behaviors have considerable implications on how risk is being amplified or attenuated at early stages of pandemic outbreaks and may undermine subsequent risk communication efforts. A survey conducted in February 2020 in the United States examined factors affecting information sharing behaviors and social amplification or attenuation of risk on Twitter among U.S. citizens at the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak. Building on the social amplification of risk framework (SARF), the study suggests the importance of factors such as online discussion, information seeking behaviors, blame and anger, trust in various types of Twitter accounts and misinformation concerns in influencing the spread of risk information during the incipient stages of a crisis when the publics rely primarily on social media for information. An attenuation of risk was found among the US public, as indicated by the overall low sharing behaviors. Findings also imply that (dis)trust and misinformation concerns on social media sources, and inconsistencies in early risk messaging may have contributed to the attenuation of risk and low risk knowledge among the US publics at the early stage of the outbreak, further problematizing subsequent risk communication efforts.