Objective This study aims to examine how risk perception is associated with engagement in preventative behaviors and testing during the COVID-19 pandemic in the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in China. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted in February 2020, eventually obtaining 1613 participants, participants’risk perceptions, demographics (sex, age, education level, marital status, and employment status), as well as their engagement in self-protective behaviors and testing were assessed. Results Risk perception significantly affected intention to engage in self-protective behaviors, the more risk people feel, the more likely they intend to take self-protective actions(β =0.0423; P < 0.01), and simultaneously, people obtaining information on COVID-19 from Official microblogs and public accounts(OMPA) (β =0.189; P < 0.01)and Online websites(OW) (β =0.143; P < 0.1)were more inclined to take self-protective behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also showed that the interaction of risk perception and Online websites negatively affected the intention to engage in self-protective behaviors(β = −0.0374; P < 0.05), and conversely, the interaction of risk perception and Overseas media(OM) positively affected self-protective intention(β = 0.0423; P < 0.1). Conclusion There was a close relationship between the risk perception and the intention to engage in self-protective behaviors. At the same time, the use of media not only directly affected the intention to engage in self-protective behaviors but also moderated the impact of risk perception on the self-protection intention. Specifically, official media directly strengthened the intention to engage in self-protective behaviors. Online websites not only directly affected self-protection intention but also moderated the effect of risk perception on it. Although overseas media had no direct effect on self-protection intention, they moderated the effect of risk perception on it. These conclusions have policy implications for governments’ response to the COVID-19 epidemic.

As a major crisis event, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the global economy, threatened the lives of the public, and caused varying degrees of impact on the public. Previous studies have shown that risk perception and government response had different impacts on the public, but they revealed more about the independent impact of risk perception and government response on the public. This study will comprehensively consider the impacts of these two factors on the behavior of the public in the early stage of the epidemic. We analyzed data from an online survey in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in China and categorized individual behaviors into three dimensions: entertainment and travel, work, and the stockpile of supplies. In addition, we defined the risk perception variables by two dimensions: knowledge of the epidemic itself and knowledge of the consequences of the epidemic. At the same time, we used an exploratory factor analysis to construct the variable of perceived government coping validity and then adopted the ordinal logit model for analysis. The results showed that in terms of entertainment and travel, people would not be affected even if they fully understood the epidemic itself; once they were aware of the negative social consequences of the epidemic, people would suspend entertainment and travel to prevent the spread of the virus. As for work or employment, people would not stop working or employment even if they realized the infectivity and harmfulness of the disease and its social consequences. Furthermore, fear of COVID-19 and the perception of uncontrolled COVID-19 significantly positively affected people’s material stockpiling behavior. These results indicate that different risk perceptions had different effects on individual responses, and individual behaviors reflected different coping logics. In addition, the government’s effective response to the epidemic would significantly reduce the negative impacts of the epidemic on the three dimensions of people’s responses. These conclusions have certain policy implications for preventing and responding to outbreaks in other countries.

This study aimed to investigate the relationship among risk perception, negative emotions, perceived government coping validity, and the sleep problem of the public, through regression analysis and mediation analysis of data from the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak in China (three months after the outbreak). It found that people’s perception of the risk of the pandemic, negative emotions, and perceived government coping validity significantly affected people’s sleep quality and nightmares. Further analysis found that individuals’ perception of risk not only affected their sleep but also intensified their negative emotions, ultimately impairing the quality of their sleep and leading to nightmares. However, having a high level of coping validity can mitigate negative emotions and consequently decrease the occurrence of nightmares, thereby enhancing the quality of sleep. Specifically, perceived government coping validity could not only directly reduce nightmares, but also indirectly reduce nightmares by lowering negative emotions. However, it could only indirectly improve sleep by reducing negative emotions. It implicated that improving and resolving sleep problems required not only medical intervention but also psychological intervention. Simultaneously, improving the government’s response effectiveness could strengthen people’s trust in the government, stabilize their mental states, and significantly improve their quality of life by reducing negative emotions and improving sleep.