COVID‐19 maps convey hazard and risk information to the public, which play an important role in the risk communication for individual protection. The aim of this study is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of communicating the specific risk of COVID‐19 maps. By testing 71 subjects from Wuhan, China, this study explored how color schemes (cool, warm, and mixed colors) and data presentation forms (choropleth maps, graduated symbol maps) influence visual cognition patterns, risk perception, comprehension, and subjective satisfaction. The results indicated that the warm scheme (yellow/red) has significant strengths in visual cognition and understanding, and the choropleth map (vs. the graduated symbol map) has significant strengths in risk expression. On subjective satisfaction, the combination of the mixed scheme (blue/yellow/red) and the choropleth map scored highest mean value. These results have implications for enhancing the focused functions of COVID‐19 maps that fit different terms: in the early and medium terms of disease transmission, choropleth maps with warm or cool colors should be considered as a priority design for their better risk perception. When the epidemic conditions are on the upturn, a better reading experience combination of choropleth maps with mixed colors can be considered.

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People may have a tendency to prefer local or national products, a phenomenon often referred as local protectionism. In the meanwhile, consumption of oversea or well-known products is a symbol of social status. An important question for both non-Chinese and Chinese manufacturers and researchers is whether Chinese prefer local or oversea products? Previous studies have shown that explicit survey is often not reliable, thus an Implicit Association Test (IAT) study is conducted with80 Chinese college students (40 males and 40 females) to investigate their implicit place-of-origin stereotypes about Chinese and foreign mobile phone brands. The results show that implicit place-of-origin stereotypes about mobile phone brands do exist among Chinese college students. They implicitly prefer, to various extents, foreign mobile phone brands, and male college students in particular are less interested in Chinese mobile phone brands. This study demonstrated an important application of the Implicit Association Test and has important application in guiding the marketing of products.

The study aims to investigate Chinese college students' stereotypes of the origins of telephone brands, by interviewing 80 college students about their attitudes toward Chinese and foreign telephone brands and analyzing the reasons concerned. The study finds that college students indeed hold stereotypes about the origin of telephone brand and show preference to domestic telephone brands. In particular, appearance design is what they will first take into consideration when choosing telephone brands.