See more project details https://sites.gatech.edu/covidinfo.
Information-seeking online has become a crucial lifeline for many individuals as they search for knowledge and resources to counteract a myriad of social, health, safety, and financial COVID-19 challenges. However, research has shown that online information is less accessible to populations such as low-income adults. Furthermore, exposure to pandemic-related information may actually have negative impacts on vulnerable populations’ wellbeing, for example, through access to misinformation and content that increases anxiety amidst existing stressors and inhibits behaviors that can prevent the spread of COVID-19. As low-income, Black, and Hispanic adults are experiencing disproportionately high rates of COVID-19-related death, severe sickness and life disruptions, our research investigates to what extent COVID-19 information is supporting or inhibiting the wellbeing of these populations.
In this project, we are focusing on the experiences of Black, Hispanic, and low-income adults. Through a longitudinal survey, we are investigating attitudes towards and consumption of COVID-19 information, and associations between information exposure, psychological wellbeing, and COVID-19 prevention behaviors. With the longitudinal study design we are further investigating the evolution of these trends over time. We are also using qualitative methods to further investigate these trends. The insights from this project will inform human-centered computing, data science, and public health research and practice focused on the wellbeing of vulnerable groups during public health crises.
This project is supported by a grant from Google.
People
- Andrea Parker (Principal Investigator, Georgia Tech)
- Yixuan (Janice) Zhang (PhD Student, Georgia Tech)
- Joseph Gaggiano (Graduate Research Assistant, Georgia Tech)
Partner Organizations
- Northeastern University
- Emory University
Publications
- Yixuan Zhang, Nurul Suhaimi, Nutchanon Yongsatianchot, Joseph D Gaggiano, Miso Kim, Shivani A. Patel, Yifan Sun, Stacy Marsella, Jacqueline Griffin, and Andrea G. Parker. 2022. Shifting Trust: Examining How Trust and Distrust Emerge, Transform, and Collapse in COVID-19 Information Seeking. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (to appear CHI’22).
- Nurul Suhaimi, Nutchanon Yongsatianchot, Yixuan Zhang, Miso Kim, Shivani A. Patel, Stacy Marsella, Andrea G. Parker, and Jacqueline Griffin. Examining Older Adults’ Information Exposure, Wellbeing, and Adherence to Protective Measures During the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Workgroup on Interactive Systems in Health (WISH’20).