COVID-19-induced negative emotions and the impacts on personal values and travel behaviors: A threat appraisal perspective

Based on the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), this paper aims to examine the role of negative emotions and their impacts on personal value orientations and protective travel behaviors during COVID-19. Data were collected among Chinese Generation Z who have shared the cataclysmic experience of COVID-19 in their formative years. A multimethod approach was adopted with focus group discussions to explore prominent changes in personal values during COVID-19, followed by a quantitative study. The serial mediation analysis supported the sequential internalization of negative emotions and personal values induced from COVID-19 threat appraisals, which in combination, imposed indirect effects on travel avoidance behavior. An extended model suggested that fear is positively related to the values of altruism and hedonism, while mild negative emotions are associated with target orientation. Altruism was found to enhance travel avoidance propensity while target orientation attenuated such propensity. The findings shed light for both academia and the industry.