Emotional responses and behavioral coping mechanism to sufferers′ privacy leakage among Chinese internet users during public health emergencies

  Objective  To study emotional reactions to and behavior intentions about sufferers′ privacy leakage among internet users in China during public health emergencies (PHE) and to provide references for improving government supervision capability and risk communication strategy.

  Methods  Totally 54 blogs and 6 946 comments relevant to two events of PHE sufferers′ privacy leakage were retrieved from Sina Weibo during March 2021 using Octoparse software. High-frequency words were extracted from the retrieved corpus with ROST Content Mining software and a grounded theory-based textual analysis was performed after open, spindle and selective coding with NVivo12.0.

  Results  Finally 25 initial and 11 main categories were identified; a 'situation-perception-reaction' theoretical model was constructed; and a logical framework was formed for the internet users′ emotional response and coping behaviors to the incidents of PHE sufferers′ privacy leakage.

  Conclusion   Influenced by personal characteristics, risk information and other factors, the self-perception on sufferers′ privacy leakage would occur among internet users in public health emergencies; based on the self-perception, the internet users may produce corresponding emotional reactions, and finally make behavioral response choices.