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How Government Credibility and Social Morality Work in a Public Health Emergency. A Study of Public Quarantine Willingness in COVID‐19
Author(s) -
Xiang Pengcheng,
Guo Jin,
Liu Qiqi
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
analyses of social issues and public policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.479
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1530-2415
pISSN - 1529-7489
DOI - 10.1111/asap.12209
Subject(s) - credibility , morality , willingness to pay , government (linguistics) , quarantine , perception , risk perception , structural equation modeling , public relations , public health , social psychology , public economics , public opinion , business , psychology , environmental health , political science , economics , medicine , law , politics , nursing , microeconomics , linguistics , philosophy , statistics , mathematics , pathology , neuroscience
This study explores the relationships among the variables: willingness to quarantine, perception of the epidemic, willingness to do outdoor activities, government credibility, and public morality. To understand these relationships, it integrates theories including epidemic prevention and control, government credibility, public morality, and social network systems. Structural equation modeling (SEM) with bootstrapping estimation was conducted using data calculated from 368 healthy citizens who are quarantining at home due to COVID‐19 in Chinese cities that have launched a first‐level primary public safety incident response. The results show that residents’ perception of the epidemic has a positive effect on their willingness to quarantine, and willingness to do outdoor activities has a negative effect. Moreover, government credibility and public morality have a mediating effect on the relationship between the perception of epidemic and willingness to quarantine. What is more, government credibility has a moderating effect on the relationship between willingness to do outdoor activities and willingness to quarantine. We discuss the implications of these results for beating future epidemics that may break out.