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Background: In the information age of health care, nurses often face information overload, leading to negative emotions, e.g., anxiety that may impede the adoption of evidence-based practice and clinical decision-making process. Nurses with higher digital health literacy can effectively process and manage information. Despite this, no research has explored the relationship between information anxiety, digital health literacy, and core competency among nurses. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the mediating effects of digital health literacy on information anxiety and core competency among nurses., Methods: From July to October 2023, the data for this cross-sectional study were collected. The study surveyed a total of 608 nurses from three tertiary hospitals in Fujian Province, and the survey instruments included a sociodemographic information questionnaire, Chinese revision version of the Digital Health Literacy Instrument (CR-DHLI), Information Anxiety Scale (IAS), and Competency Inventory for Registered Nurses (CIRN). Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analysis were conducted using SPSS 29.0, and the mediating effect of digital health literacy was examined using Mplus., Results: The mean score of nurses' information anxiety, digital health literacy, and core competency was 3.03 ± 0.91, 2.46 ± 0.56, 2.72 ± 0.88, respectively. And the mediation model of information anxiety on core competency for nurses showed a good model fit index (χ²/df = 2.207, CFI = 0.985, TLI = 0.982, RMSEA = 0.045, SRMR = 0.035). Digital health literacy was positively correlated with nurses' core competency but negatively correlated with information anxiety. The results of path analysis revealed that information anxiety had negative and significant direct effects on NCC (β = -0.119, P = 0.004) and DHL (β = -0.297, P < 0.001). DHL had a positive effect on NCC (β = 0.306, P < 0.001). Digital health literacy played a partial mediating role, accounting for 43.54% of the relationship between information anxiety and nurses' core competency., Conclusions: Information anxiety among nurses was at relatively high levels, which had a negative impact on the core competency of nurses. This issue requires attention from nursing managers. The mediating role of digital health literacy in the relationship between information anxiety and core competency among nurses has been established. Nursing managers should strengthen the evaluation of nurses' DHL and devise effective support strategies to enhance DHL, thus improving the core competence of nurses in information age., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Introduction: With the boom in social media, many people spend a lot of time on these platforms. Among them, some developed negative emotions, such as fatigue, depression, or disinterest in communicating, and used social media temporarily or permanently. Therefore, this study aims to explore the antecedents of social media fatigue, including social media helpfulness, social media self-efficacy, online subjective well-being, social comparison, compulsive social media use, privacy concerns, fear of missing out, and information overload, and to further discuss the determinants of social media fatigue on social anxiety and lurking., Methods: An online questionnaire was distributed to social media users, and 659 valid samples were obtained with the help of a purposive sampling strategy. The data was analyzed by the partial least square (PLS) method., Results: The study found that social media self-efficacy had a significant negative effect on social media fatigue; compulsive social media use, fear of missing out, and information overload had a significant positive effect on social media fatigue; and social media fatigue had a significant positive effect on social anxiety and lurking., Discussion: The research results can be used as a reference for social media marketers and internet service providers in developing business strategies., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Qin, Li, Wang, Zhao, Tong, Yang and Liu.)

Objectives: Healthcare providers employ heuristic and analytical decision-making to navigate the high-stakes environment of the emergency department (ED). Despite the increasing integration of information systems (ISs), research on their efficacy is conflicting. Drawing on related fields, we investigate how timing and mode of delivery influence IS effectiveness. Our objective is to reconcile previous contradictory findings, shedding light on optimal IS design in the ED., Materials and Methods: We conducted a systematic review following PRISMA across PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. We coded the ISs' timing as heuristic or analytical, their mode of delivery as active for automatic alerts and passive when requiring user-initiated information retrieval, and their effect on process, economic, and clinical outcomes., Results: Our analysis included 83 studies. During early heuristic decision-making, most active interventions were ineffective, while passive interventions generally improved outcomes. In the analytical phase, the effects were reversed. Passive interventions that facilitate information extraction consistently improved outcomes., Discussion: Our findings suggest that the effectiveness of active interventions negatively correlates with the amount of information received during delivery. During early heuristic decision-making, when information overload is high, physicians are unresponsive to alerts and proactively consult passive resources. In the later analytical phases, physicians show increased receptivity to alerts due to decreased diagnostic uncertainty and information quantity. Interventions that limit information lead to positive outcomes, supporting our interpretation., Conclusion: We synthesize our findings into an integrated model that reveals the underlying reasons for conflicting findings from previous reviews and can guide practitioners in designing ISs in the ED., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association.)

In social commerce, users are increasingly resorting to social media platforms to search for information, purchase goods, and share shopping experiences. However, social media use may also affect users' emotions negatively, causing them to switch platforms. Therefore, this study aims to investigate how negative factors (i.e., information and communication overload) affect consumers' platform-switching behavior in social commerce. Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model, this study established a research framework and conducted an online survey in China. A purposive sampling technique was used to collect the data, generating 477 valid responses. Data analysis, based on structural equation modeling, indicates that information and communication overload, and online fatigue positively affect platform-switching intention. The effect of the intention to switch on behavior is moderated by switching costs. Mediation analysis shows that information and communication overload can indirectly influence switching behavior through online fatigue and switching intention. This study incorporates the novel aspects of switching costs in examining the driving forces behind platform-switching in social commerce, thereby theoretically adding value to the existing body of knowledge. Apart from this, our findings also bear significant practical implications and are valuable for social commerce platforms and sellers to improve their user experience and retain existing customers., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Authors.)

Purpose: To examine the relationships among health literacy, risk perceptions, COVID-19 information overload, health information seeking, and race/ethnicity., Design: A cross-sectional non-probability community survey conducted between December 2020 and January 2021. A questionnaire was developed in collaboration with a local minority health task force., Setting: Albany, New York, USA., Sample: 331 adults residing in Albany, NY and neighboring areas (80.3% completion rate)., Measures: Multi-item scales were used to measure health literacy, perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, information overload, and health information seeking frequency and types., Analysis: We conducted multivariate regression analysis., Results: Health literacy (standardized β = -.33, P < .001) and perceived severity (β = -.23, P < .001) were negatively associated with information overload. Information overload was negatively associated with health information seeking frequency (β = -.16, P < .05) and types (β = -.19, P < .01). A further analysis shows several factors, including information overload and race (African Americans), were negatively related to seeking specific types of information., Conclusion: We find that low health literacy and perceived severity contribute to information overload and that information overload adversely affects health information seeking. Black individuals are less likely to search for certain types of information. The cross-sectional study design limits our ability to determine causality. Future research should employ panel data to determine the directionality of the observed relationships., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Background: Younger generations actively use social media to access health information. However, research shows that they also avoid obtaining health information online at times when confronted with uncertainty., Objective: This study aims to examine the phenomenon of health information avoidance among Generation Z, a representative cohort of active web users in this era., Methods: Drawing on the planned risk information avoidance model, we adopted a qualitative approach to explore the factors related to information avoidance within the context of health and risk communication. The researchers recruited 38 participants aged 16 to 25 years for the focus group discussion sessions., Results: In this study, we sought to perform a deductive qualitative analysis of the focus group interview content with open, focused, and theoretical coding. Our findings support several key components of the planned risk information avoidance model while highlighting the underlying influence of cognition on emotions. Specifically, socioculturally, group identity and social norms among peers lead some to avoid health information. Cognitively, mixed levels of risk perception, conflicting values, information overload, and low credibility of information sources elicited their information avoidance behaviors. Affectively, negative emotions such as anxiety, frustration, and the desire to stay positive contributed to avoidance., Conclusions: This study has implications for understanding young users' information avoidance behaviors in both academia and practice., (©Chenjin Jia, Pengcheng Li. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 08.03.2024.)

Objective: Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) misperceptions constitute a critical precursor to undesired health outcomes for women. Drawing on the model of stigma management communication and exposure effects, we aimed to investigate the underlying processes of SRH misperceptions., Methods: A nationwide survey was conducted via quota sampling with Chinese women (N = 1000). Structural equation modeling with maximum likelihood estimation and 5000 bootstrapping resamples were used to test the hypotheses., Results: Stigma perceptions positively predicted information avoidance (β = 0.207, p < 0.001), which, in turn, was positively associated with misperceptions (β = 0.195, p < 0.001). Misinformation exposure significantly predicted misperceptions (β = 0.607, p < 0.001), and this relationship was mediated by information avoidance (β = 0.020, 95% CI [0.007, 0.040]). Moreover, information overload strengthened the relationship between misinformation exposure and information avoidance (β = 0.153, p < 0.001) as well as the relationship between misinformation exposure and misperceptions (β = 0.077, p = 0.006)., Conclusion: Stigma and misinformation exposure play prominent roles in the formation of SRH misperceptions. Information overload facilitates the misinformation-misperception transformation., Practice Implications: To counteract SRH misperceptions, health education should alleviate SRH stigma perceptions and strategically design messages to avoid information avoidance and overload., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

People's information behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic was challenged through vast amounts of information, misinformation, and disinformation. This study sets out to address the research gap of longitudinal, qualitative inquiries about how people's information behavior changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to assess how residents of German-speaking Switzerland perceived and evaluated information gathering during a global health crisis. As part of the "Solidarity in Times of a Pandemic" (SolPan) Research Commons, 83 semi-structured interviews with residents of German-speaking Switzerland were conducted in April 2020 (T1), October 2020 (T2), and October 2021 (T3). People were asked about their lived experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Qualitative data analysis followed a reflexive thematic analysis approach, using Wilson's model of information behavior as a theoretical framework. Participants perceived high-quality journalistic news media, the Swiss national government, scientific experts, and their direct social environment as trustworthy information sources. They were motivated to gather information through the wish of gaining agency and certainty in the context of a major, global health crisis. Intervening variables that hindered information seeking included a perceived lack of agency, habituation effects in the later stages of the pandemic, information overload, inconsistent information, and conspiracy theories. While information needs were generally high in T1, participants expressed a growing extent of information fatigue in T2. In T3, the most prominent themes were conflicting information and differing interpretations, which led to an increased perception of societal polarization, which was perceived as a direct consequence of participants' information behavior. This finding is contextualized through established models of attitude formation: The study indicates how participants formed rather stable attitudes over time and how this led to a growing polarization and societal segmentation as the pandemic progressed. Practical implications regarding how to meet such societal polarization during crises are discussed., (Copyright © 2024 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Cyberchondria is increasingly recognized as the dark side of digital health, given the pervasive use of the internet as a main source of health information in people's daily lives. While previous studies have identified many factors contributing to cyberchondria, there is a dearth of research on the impact of health-related advertisements. Therefore, this study adopts the stressor-strain-outcome (SSO) model to investigate how health-related advertising interference is directly and indirectly related to cyberchondria., Methods: To empirically validate the proposed research model, we conducted an online survey with 437 internet users with medical information seeking experience in China. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the survey data., Results: Our findings revealed a positive, direct association between health-related advertising interference and cyberchondria. Meanwhile, advertising interference was positively related to both information overload and information irrelevance, with the former further predicting cyberchondria. Moreover, doctor-patient communication weakened the positive effect of information overload on cyberchondria., Conclusions: The study not only theoretically contributes to the literature by theorizing the relationship between health-related advertising interference and cyberchondria but also practically underlines the pivotal role of effective doctor-patient communication in reducing the development of cyberchondria., Competing Interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© The Author(s) 2024.)

Introduction: Drawing on the cognition-affect-conation (C-A-C) framework, this study investigates how perceived information and social and system feature overload induce depression and anxiety, which leads to affect discontinuous intentions of the social media users., Methods: The data collected from 570 social networking site users in China are analyzed through structural equation modeling (SEM)., Results and Discussion: The findings show that perceived information overload, perceived social overload, and perceived system feature overload directly affect depression and anxiety among social networking site users, which directly leads to discontinuous intentions. This study fulfills the identified need for an in-depth investigation of discontinuous behavior in social networking sites. The findings provide social networking site providers with guidelines on how to actively manage social networking site user's behavior to reduce the effects of negative emotions on social networking sites., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Qaisar, Nawaz Kiani and Jalil.)

Drawing upon the communication visibility theory, this study delves into the intricate dynamics of message transference and network translucence within the context of enterprise social media (ESM), unraveling their profound impact on information overload and social overload experienced by employees. Consequently, we examine the consequential relationship between these overwhelming cognitive burdens and the levels of work stress experienced by individuals in the organizational setting. Moreover, our study explores the moderating role of resilience, shedding light on how this intrinsic psychological trait can shape the connection among information overload, social overload, and work stress. Based on empirical analysis of the data collected from 351 ESM users, the findings demonstrate a significant positive association between message transference, network translucence, and the occurrence of information overload and social overload among employees. Furthermore, the results reveal a strong positive association among information overload and social overload over work stress. However, the salient contribution of this study lies in uncovering the pivotal moderating effect of resilience, revealing that high levels of resilience act as a buffer against the adverse impacts of information overload and social overload, leading to lower levels of work stress among individuals. By advancing our comprehension of communication visibility theory, this study adds to the theoretical underpinnings of communication visibility, resilience, and their interplay in the context of ESM while providing practical insights for employees and organizations to navigate the challenges posed by information overload, social overload, and work stress. Through its meticulous examination of these multifaceted phenomena, this study opens avenues for further research and invites scholars to probe deeper into the complex dynamics of communication visibility and resilience in the evolving landscape of contemporary organizations., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: The advent of bigdata era fundamentally transformed the nature of medical information seeking and the traditional binary medical relationship. Weaving stress coping theory and information processing theory, we developed an integrative perspective on information seeking behavior and explored the antecedent and consequence of such behavior., Methods: Data were collected from 573 women suffering from infertility who was seeking assisted reproductive technology treatment in China. We used AMOS 22.0 and the PROCESS macro in SPSS 25.0 software to test our model., Results: Our findings demonstrated that patients' satisfaction with information received from the physicians negatively predicted their behavior involvement in information seeking, such behavior positively related to their perceived information overload, and the latter negatively related to patient-physician relationship quality. Further findings showed that medical information seeking behavior and perceived information overload would serially mediate the impacts of satisfaction with information received from physicians on patient-physician relationship quality., Discussion: This study extends knowledge of information seeking behavior by proposing an integrative model and expands the application of stress coping theory and information processing theory. Additionally, it provides valuable implications for patients, physicians and public health information service providers., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Sun, Zhang, Hou, Sun, Cao, Zhang, Tang, Wang, Geng, Cui and Chen.)

Since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, long-term overlooked motives concerning a sense of safety have become a primary concern. People's sense of safety largely depends on the information they receive. Indeed, a tsunami of information about the virus has been disseminated by all forms of media to people's electronic devices, thus permeating their lives. This study proposed that the over-abundance of information, known as information overload, could endanger individuals' sense of safety by increasing their rumination about COVID-19. However, it could also enhance their sense of safety by increasing their positive attitudes toward COVID-19 precautions. Furthermore, we proposed that individuals' hypervigilance could strengthen the relationship between information overload and rumination about COVID-19 and attitudes toward COVID-19 precautions. We tested these hypotheses using a cross-sectional survey study (N = 403) in February 2021 and a diary study (N = 98) in July 2021 in China. The results of both studies support the dual mediating paths of the relationship between information overload and sense of safety. We also found that hypervigilance moderated the relationship between information overload and rumination about COVID-19. Overall, our study offers insights into how social media may influence people's sense of safety and how individual differences in hypervigilance play a role in the process., (© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Information overload is a problem that is being exacerbated by the ongoing digitalization of the world of work and the growing use of information and communication technologies. Therefore, the aim of this systematic literature review is to provide an insight into existing measures for prevention and intervention related to information overload. The methodological approach of the systematic review is based on the PRISMA standards. A keyword search in three interdisciplinary scientific databases and other more practice-oriented databases resulted in the identification of 87 studies, field reports, and conceptual papers that were included in the review. The results show that a considerable number of papers have been published on interventions on the behavioral prevention level. At the level of structural prevention, there are also many proposals on how to design work to reduce information overload. A further distinction can be made between work design approaches at the level of information and communication technology and at the level of teamwork and organizational regulations. Although the identified studies cover a wide range of possible interventions and design approaches to address information overload, the strength of the evidence from these studies is mixed., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Arnold, Goldschmitt and Rigotti.)

Employing the stressor-strain-outcome framework, this study demonstrates that COVID-19 information overload on social media exerts a significant effect on the level of fatigue toward COVID-19-related messages. This feeling of message fatigue also makes people avoid another exposure to similar types of messages while diminishing their intentions to adopt protective behaviors in response to the pandemic. Information overload regarding COVID-19 on social media also has indirect effects on message avoidance and protective behavioral intention against COVID-19, respectively, through the feeling of fatigue toward COVID-19 messages on social media. This study emphasizes the need to consider message fatigue as a significant barrier in delivering effective risk communication., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest The author declares that he has no conflict of interest., (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.)

This study sought to examine the potential role of news avoidance in belief in COVID-19 misinformation. Using two-wave panel survey data in Singapore, we found that information overload is associated with news fatigue as well as with difficulty in analyzing information. News fatigue and analysis paralysis also subsequently led to news avoidance, which increased belief in COVID-19 misinformation. However, this link is present only among those who are frequently exposed to misinformation about COVID-19., Competing Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© The Author(s) 2022.)

COVID-19 prevention messages are a crucial component of disease mitigation strategies and the primary driver of health decision-making during the global pandemic. However, the constant and repetitive nature of COVID-19 messaging may cause unintended consequences. Among the commonly observed phenomena are information overload and message fatigue, which might be experienced differently depending on cultural background. Using measurement invariance testing, this study compared how individuals from two countries-USA (n = 493) and China (n = 571)-experienced information overload and message fatigue toward COVID-19 prevention messages. Findings revealed that people in China showed significantly lower level of information overload and message fatigue than those in the USA. This study explores the extent of the unintended persuasive effects that people have experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic in different societies, a comparison which has never been studied before, even outside of the context of COVID-19. The study also provides much-needed practical insights to develop public health initiatives that improve COVID-19 prevention communication, which can further reduce these unintended effects in both countries, and has implications for other countries as well., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Performance of clinical trials has led to major therapeutic developments and substantial improvements in the field of medical oncology. To ensure patient's safety, regulatory aspects for proper clinical trial conduct have been increased over the past two decades but seem to cause information overload and ineffective bureaucracy, possibly even impacting patient safety. To put this in perspective, after the implementation of Directive 2001/20/EC in the European Union, a 90 per cent increase in trial launching time, a 25 per cent decrease in patient participation and a 98 per cent rise in administrative trial costs were reported. The time to initiate a clinical trial has increased from a few months to several years in the past three decades. Moreover, there is a serious risk that information overload with relatively unimportant data endangers the decision-making processes and distracts from essential patient safety information. It is now a critical moment in time to improve efficient clinical trial conduct for our future patients diagnosed with cancer. We are convinced that a reduction of the administrative regulations, information overload, and simplification of the procedures for trial conductance may improve patient safety. In this Current Perspective, we give insight in the current regulatory aspects of clinical research, evaluate the practical consequences of these regulations, and propose specific improvements for optimal clinical trial conduct., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

To comprehend the nature, implications, risks and consequences of the events of the COVID-19 crisis, individuals largely relied on various online information sources. The features of online information exchange (e.g., conducted on a massive scale, with an abundance of information and unverified sources) led to various behavioral and psychological responses that are not fully understood. This study therefore investigated the relationship between exposure to online information sources and how individuals sought, forwarded, and provided COVID-19 related information. Anchored in the stimulus-organism-response model, cognitive load theory, and the theory of fear appeal, this study examined the link between the online consumption of COVID-19-related information and psychological and behavioral responses. In the theory development process, we hypothesized the moderating role of levels of fear. The research model included six hypotheses and was empirically verified on self-reported data (N = 425), which was collected in early 2021. The results indicate that continuous exposure to online information sources led to perceived information overload, which further heightened the psychological state of cyberchondria. Moreover, the act of seeking and providing COVID-19 information was significantly predicted by perceived cyberchondria. The results also suggest that higher levels of fear led to increased levels of seeking and providing COVID-19-related information. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are presented, along with promising areas for future research., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a generally high level of state anxiety resulting from the high contagiousness of the disease and strict prevention and control policies. The present study mainly focused on the relationship between the individual intolerance of uncertainty and state anxiety in the regular epidemic prevention and control phase in China, and aimed to investigate the mediating role of information overload and rumination, as well as the moderating role of self-compassion. A total of 992 Chinese residents from 31 provinces participated in this study, and completed questionnaires regarding intolerance of uncertainty, information overload, self-compassion, rumination, and state anxiety. Descriptive statistics and correlation analyses, as well as tests for mediating effects and moderated chain mediating effects, were performed on the data using SPSS 26.0 and Process 3.5 macro program. The findings indicated that intolerance of uncertainty significantly predicted individual state anxiety. Information overload mediates the effects of intolerance of uncertainty and state anxiety. Rumination also mediates the effect of uncertainty intolerance on state anxiety. Information overload and rumination have a chain mediation effect on the link between intolerance of uncertainty and state anxiety. Self-compassion mediates the effect of information overload on rumination. The results illuminate theoretical and practical implications in the regular epidemic prevention and control phases and reveal the protective role of self-compassion., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (© The International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS) and Springer Nature B.V. 2023, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.)

The COVID-19 pandemic brought many challenges to the health care workforce. A novel infectious disease, COVID-19 uncovered information gaps that were essential for frontline staff, including nurses, to care for patients and themselves. The authors developed a Web-based solution consisting of saved searches from PubMed on clinically relevant topics specific to nurses' information needs. This article discusses the objectives, development, content, and usage of this Internet resource and also provides tips for hospitals of all sizes to implement similar tools to evidence-based practice during infectious disease outbreaks., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Aim: This study was conducted in three phases. Phase 1 aimed to adapt the Cancer Information Overload Scale and conduct content validity testing. Phase 2 aimed to conduct factorial validity testing of the scale. Phase 3 aimed to assess information overload and the sources of information used by nurses and midwives to keep up-to-date about COVID-19., Design: A cross-sectional survey of nurses and midwives working in a metropolitan Local Health District in Sydney, Australia, was conducted from May to June 2020., Methods: Adaptation of the Cancer Information Overload Scale and content validity of the modified scale (as the Pandemic Information Overload Scale) was undertaken by an expert panel comprising of senior nurses and researchers. Factorial validity and reliability of the Pandemic Information Overload Scale were evaluated using exploratory factor analyses using one subsample of the data. Using the second subsample of the data, information overload and sources of information used by nurses and midwives to keep up-to-date about COVID-19 were examined., Results: The Pandemic Information Overload Scale is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring information overload among nurses during a pandemic. Its internal consistency was high (α = 0.81, M = 3.84)., Conclusion: The 8-item PIO scale is a brief, reliable and psychometrically sound instrument for measuring nurses' and midwives' perceptions of information overload during COVID-19. Mean scores across this study indicated that participants were experiencing above average information overload. Implementing strategies to reduce this overload would optimize clinical decision making and promote patient safety., (© 2022 The Authors. International Journal of Nursing Practice published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

Objectives: The increase in the intensity of social media use during the COVID-19 lockdown has affected mental health. Therefore, it is of practical implications to explore the association between social media overload and anxiety and the underlying mechanisms. Methods: Using data from 644 university students during the COVID-19 blockade in Shanghai from March to April 2022, the chain mediation model of information strain and risk perception of omicron between social media overload and anxiety was then tested using the macro PROCESS4.0 tool. Results: The findings showed that social media overload (including information overload and social overload) was positively associated with anxiety. This relationship was mediated by information strain and risk perception of Omicron. A chain mediating role of information strain and risk perception of Omicron has also been proved in this study. Conclusion: Social media overload has a positive effect on anxiety by increasing information strain and risk perception of Omicron. This study provides some implications for future interventions on how to use social media properly for mental health during the pandemic and health management of urban governance., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they do not have any conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Wang, Xu and Xie.)

The market size of live streaming on the Internet, in which the streamer earns profit by prompting users to give virtual gifts through emotional labor, is getting bigger and bigger. However, most users will only buy cheap virtual gifts in live streaming, therefore exploring how to promote users to buy expensive virtual gifts is a valuable topic in live commerce research. Based on social presence theory and information overload theory, this study used the PLS-SEM method to investigate the factors influencing live streaming users to shift from buying cheap virtual gifts to buying expensive virtual gifts, and analyzed the moderating role of information overload in these relationships. The results show that immediate interaction anxiety, verbal intimacy, and virtual physical intimacy positively influence users' shift to purchasing expensive virtual gifts, and that perceived network size and perceived financial risk are negative factors in users' shift to purchasing expensive virtual gifts. Information overload has a moderating role in the relationship between immediate interaction anxiety and switch intention, and it also plays a moderating role in the relationship between perceived network size and perceived financial risk on users' switch intention., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Cao, Zhang, Liu and Shang.)

Social media applications have increasingly become a valuable platform for personal communication and knowledge sharing in working life. Several researchers have considered the direct role of social media usage in influencing job performance. However, limited studies explore how social media use may impact employees' job performance, especially in innovativeness. Moreover, inconsistencies in the findings exist in the literature regarding whether social media improves employees' job performance or causes harm. By adapting the stressor-strain-outcome (SSO) model, the present study investigates how WhatsApp use at work can predict social media overloads that might induce technostress and, subsequently, affect employees' innovative job performance. Thus, 206 Malaysian employees from the government and private sectors participated in this study and the data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings show that social media, predominantly WhatsApp, used at work has a mild but statistically significant influence on information overload, communication overload, and social overload. In addition, information overload and communication overload positively influence technostress, except for social overload. Subsequently, technostress does not have an impact on innovative job performance. This study provides theoretical and practical implications for extending the knowledge and mitigating plans and efforts to improve employees' performance at work. Therefore, this study helps mitigate the dearth of research pertaining to the roles of social media use at work on employees' innovative job performance.

Introduction: Being ignorant or unaware is not expected in a situation like the pandemic of COVID-19 with modern internet connectivity and the era of social media. However, information overload may itself lead to health anxiety., Aims and Objectives: This study investigated the predictability of health anxiety with information overload and sociodemographic profiles during the COVID-19 pandemic., Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was done among 400 caretakers of non-covid patients in a tertiary healthcare medical college. The consenting participants provided their sociodemographic details and responded to the short health anxiety inventory (SHAI), Beck anxiety inventory (BAI) and Information overload scale (IOS) for COVID-19., Results: A total number of 400 participants aged 35.58 ± 10.57 years participated and out of which 88.2% acknowledged health-related anxiety and 56.8% for excessive use of social media. BAI measured anxiety was mild for 19.8%, moderate for 3.5% and severe for 3%. The linear regression analysis predicted health anxiety by three variables only: total anxiety as measured by the Beck anxiety inventory [β = 0.416, t = 9.318, p = 0.000], information overload (rejection of information) [β = 0.171, t = 3.126, p = 0.002], and excessive use of social media [β = 0.124, t = 2.888, p = 0.004]., Conclusion: Information overload, its rejection and excessive use of social media were found to be predictive of health-related anxiety., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2022, Pallavi et al.)

There is considerable interest in whether increased investment in science, made by society, pays dividends. Some plausibly argue the increased rate of production of information results in an ossification of the canon. Reports, challenging the canon, fall by the wayside. The field thus becomes increasingly complex, reflecting not so much the reality of nature but how we investigate the subject. I suggest that focusing on and resolving the paradoxes evident within a canon will free the logjam, resulting in more resilient research. Immunology is among the fastest growing of biological sciences and is, I suggest, an appropriate case study. I examine the commonly accepted frameworks employed over the last three decades to address two major, related immunological questions: what determines whether antigen activates or inactivates CD4 T cells, and so whether immune responses are initiated or this potential ablated; secondly, what determines the Th subset to which the activated Th cells belong, thus determining the class of immunity generated. I show there are major paradoxes within these frameworks, neglected for decades. I propose how research focused on resolving paradoxes can be better fostered, and so support the evolution of the canon. This perspective is pertinent in facing critical issues on how immune responses are regulated, and to more general issues of both the philosophy of science and of science policy.The last section is in response to questions and comments of the reviewers. It brings together several considerations to express my view: the same frameworks, formulated in response to the two questions, are useful in understanding the regulation of the immune response against model antigens, against self and foreign antigens, those of tumors and of pathogens., Competing Interests: The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Bretscher.)

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism economy has been seriously affected. China has implemented a direct traveling management mechanism and recovered from the pandemic faster than the rest of the world. However, the COVID-19 situation is complicated and uncontrollable because of the available unclear information including difficult medical terminologies. This study attempts to find the determinants of the travel intention of China's tourists in the post-COVID-19 epidemic. Along with information overload and perception risk, an expanded research model of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was employed to propose the theoretical framework of this study. A survey was conducted among 518 tourists who spend their holiday in Hainan, which is a popular tourist destination in China. The empirical results show that information overload positively and significantly impacted perceived risk. Furthermore, perceived risk negatively affects the intention to travel. Perceived risk also negatively affected the attitude toward traveling. However, response self-efficacy did not have a significant effect on the intention to travel. Finally, based on the analysis results, this study proposes relevant research contributions and practical recommendations with management implications for the travel industries., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential., (Copyright © 2022 Wu, Cao, Mao and Hu.)

This study examines how perceived information overload and misinformation affect vaccine hesitancy and how this is moderated by structural and cultural factors. By applying and extending the fundamental cause theory, this study proposes a contextualized impact model to analyze a cross-national survey of 6034 residents in six societies in Asia, Europe and North America in June 2021. The study finds that (1) Older and highly-educated participants were less susceptible to COVID-19 information overload and belief in vaccine misinformation. (2) Perceived information overload led to an increase in vaccine acceptance and uptake, whereas belief in vaccine misinformation caused a decrease. (3) The structural differentiation of vaccine hesitancy was salient and higher socioeconomic status could buffer the negative impact of misinformation on vaccine acceptance. (4) Cultural factors such as collectivism and authoritarian mentality also served as buffers against the misinformation that reduced vaccine acceptance and uptake. These findings add nuanced footnotes to the fundamental causes theory and contribute to the discussion on the global recovery from the infodemic. Besides fact-checking and improving individual information literacy, effective and long-term information management and health policies must pay attention to stratified information gaps across socioeconomic groups, and to contextualize the communication and intervention strategies in different cultures., (© 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Features and relevant services of online social media have been attracting users during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous studies have shown that college students tend to use social media more frequently than other groups. However, in being affected by social media overload, the social media use behaviors of many college students have been out of their control in terms of their capabilities or cognition. Based on the stressor-strain-outcome (SSO) model and the theory of compensatory internet use (TCIU), we developed a research model to study the causes of social media overload and its impact on college students' academic performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 441 valid responses from college students through questionnaires in China are collected via purposive sampling and used in the data analysis. This study conducts PLS-SEM to analyze collected data, finding that boredom proneness is associated with overload (stress), which has a bearing on social media overload (strain) and the reduction in final performance (outcome). Through illustrating the psychological and behavioral conditions that hinder the academic performance of students, this study provides deeper insights into students' uncontrollable use of social media. Moreover, with respect to the identified antecedents, this study aims to find solutions to mitigate the impact of social media overload resulting from boredom proneness on the academic performance of college students., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Xu, Li, Zhang, Yue and Ye.)

Background: The COVID-19 outbreak is no longer a pure epidemiological concern but a true digital infodemic. Numerous conflicting information and misinformation occupy online platforms and specifically social media. While we have lived in an infodemic environment for more than 2 years, we are more prone to feel overwhelmed by the information and suffer from long-term mental health problems. However, limited research has concentrated on the cause of these threats, particularly in terms of information processing and the context of infodemic., Objective: This study proposed and tested moderated mediation pathways from two types of health information behaviors (social media engagement and interpersonal communication) on information overload and mental health symptoms-long-term stress., Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional online survey between May and June of 2021 among the Malaysian public. The final sample size was 676 ( N = 676). A conceptual model was built to guide the data analysis. We conducted structural equation modeling (SEM), moderation and mediation analyses to examine each direct pathway, moderating and mediating effects., Results: According to the pathway analysis, we found that, during the infodemic period, engaging COVID-19 information on social media positively associated with information overload, but interpersonal communication was negatively related to it. As the proximal outcome, there was also a positive association between information overload and the final outcome, perceived stress. The moderation analysis only reported one significant interaction: risk perception weakened the association between social media engagement and information overload. A conditional indirect effect was demonstrated and the indirect associated between social media engagement and perceived stress mediated through information overload was further moderated by COVID-19 risk perception., Conclusion: This research offers new grounds for understanding health information behaviors and their consequences in the COVID-19 infodemic. We particularly highlighted the distinct functions of health information behaviors in causing information overload, as well as the importance of personal health belief in this process. Our proposed model contributes to the strategies of developing health messaging strategies that may be utilized by public health researchers and health educators in the future., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Zhang, Tham, Waheed, Kim, Jeong, Chang and Ahmad.)

This study evaluates the relationship between diversified relationships established under the umbrella of the Stimuli-Organism-Response (SOR) framework to study the consumer continuation intention of the Airbnb platform from a Malaysian perspective. A web-based survey was conducted among Malaysian Airbnb consumers, and a sample of 303 respondents was obtained. SmartPLS has been used for data analysis. The statistical output of the respondent's data indicates that social overload and information overload influence consumer continuation intention. Moreover, the satisfaction and trust in the platform partially mediate the relationship between the stimuli and behavioral response. Further, perceived health risk strengthens the negative relationship between continuation and trust in the platform. The theoretical implications include enacting a SOR framework to understand the consumer's internal state of mind and ability to influence the consumer platform continuation intention. The practical implications suggest that the managers and business owners focus on limiting the social exposure at the host destination and the flow of information from the application., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Zubair, Baharun, Kiran and Abro.)

Objective: We assessed the associations of family wellbeing with verifying and subsequently forwarding COVID-19-related information to family members and the mediating effect of the quality of family communication on these associations among Chinese adults in Hong Kong., Methods: Under the Jockey Club SMART Family-Link Project, we conducted an online population-based survey, using Family wellbeing Scale and questions related to the family communication quality and forwarding and verifying COVID-19 information. Data were collected from 4,891 adults in May 2020. Prevalence estimates of forwarding and verifying COVID-19 information were weighted by sex, age, and education of the general population, and their associations with family wellbeing (ranged 0-10) were analyzed using generalized linear models with mutual adjustment. Their interactive effects on family wellbeing and the mediating effects of family communication quality were examined., Results: In total, 53.9% of respondents usually/always forwarded COVID-19 information related to their family, 68.7% usually/always verified it before forwarding, and 40.9% did both. Greater family wellbeing was associated with usually/always forwarding [adjusted β (95% CI): 0.82 (0.72-0.92)] and usually/always verifying [0.43 (0.32-0.55)] (both P < 0.001) the information. Forwarding and verifying such information showed an additive effect on family wellbeing [1.25 (1.11-1.40)]. Family communication quality mediated the associations of family wellbeing with forwarding (83.7%) and verifying (86.6%) COVID-19-related information., Conclusion: Forwarding COVID-19 information to family, verifying such information, and especially doing both, were associated with greater family wellbeing, being strongly mediated by the quality of family communication. Individuals should be encouraged to verify COVID-19-related information before forwarding it to family members amidst the COVID-19 pandemic., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Wong, Ho, Sit, Gong, Lai, Wang and Lam.)

Background: A worrying phenomenon has emerged in recent years: a growing number of people have stopped seeking coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) information and have started deliberately avoiding it. Even though the virulence of COVID-19 has now weakened, the proportion of severe illnesses and deaths in elderly people is still much higher than in other age groups. However, no study has focused on this topic. This is the first study to explore the level of COVID-19 information avoidance among elderly people, and to identify the barriers and potential factors associated therewith. Methods: Convenience sampling was used to recruit 907 elderly people in Wuhan, China. Data collection measures included a sociodemographic questionnaire, health information avoidance scale, information overload scale, general self-efficacy scale, and health anxiety inventory. Results: A total of 72.3% of elderly participants reported COVID-19 information avoidance. Regarding COVID-19-related information reading habits, 44.5% of the elderly only read the title, 16.0% merely skimmed through the content, and 22.9% skipped all relevant information. The most common reasons for this result were information overload (67.5%), underestimation of the infection risk (58.1%), and uselessness of information (56.4%). The main factors associated with COVID-19 information avoidance were recorded as information overload, age, health anxiety, and children (p < 0.05). Conclusions: China should strengthen its health communication regarding COVID-19 in accordance with the characteristics of elderly people, adopt more attractive publicity methods on traditional media, improve censorship about health information, and pay more attention to the childless elderly and the elderly aged 80 and above.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by a massive infodemic. Yet limited studies have quantified the impact of the COVID-19 infodemic on vaccine hesitancy. This study examined the effect of perceived information overload (IO) and misinformation on vaccine willingness and uptake within a cross-national context. It also investigated how trust in multiple institutions affected vaccine outcomes and moderated the relationship between the infodemic and vaccine attitude and behavior. A cross-national online survey of residents, representative of the general population aged ≥18 in six Asian and Western jurisdictions, was conducted in June 2021. The results showed that perceived IO was positively associated with COVID-19 vaccine willingness and uptake. Belief in misinformation was negatively associated with vaccine willingness and uptake. Institutional trust may increase vaccine willingness and uptake. Moreover, trust in the government and civil societies tended to strengthen the positive effect of IO and reduce the negative impact of misinformation on vaccine willingness and uptake. The relationship between belief in misinformation and getting vaccinated against COVID-19 was unexpectedly stronger among those with a higher level of trust in healthcare professionals. This study contributes to a better understanding of the main and interactive effect of the infodemic and institutional trust on vaccine outcomes during a pandemic.

This study aimed to examine the relationship between information overload and individual state anxiety in the period of regular epidemic prevention and control and mediating effect of risk perception and positive coping styles. Further, we explored the moderating role of resilience. 847 Chinese participated in and completed measures of information overload, risk perception, positive coping styles, state anxiety, and resilience. The results of the analysis showed that information overload significantly predicted the level of individual state anxiety (β = 0.27, p  < 0.001). Risk perception partially mediate the relationship between information overload and state anxiety (B = 0.08, 95%CI = [0.05, 0.11]) and positive coping styles also partially mediate the relationship between information overload and state anxiety(B = -0.14, 95%CI = [-0.18, -0.10]). In addition, resilience moderated the mediating effects of risk perception (β = -0.07, p  < 0.05) and positive coping styles (β = -0.19, p  < 0.001). Resilience also moderated the effect of information overload on state anxiety (β = -0.13, p  < 0.001). These results offer positive significance for understanding the internal mechanism of the influence of information overload on individual state anxiety in the epidemic environment and shed light on how to reduce people's state anxiety during an epidemic., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interestThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022.)

Objective: The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate an adaptive user interface that could detect states of operator information overload and calibrate the amount of information on the screen., Background: Machine learning can detect changes in operating context and trigger adaptive user interfaces (AUIs) to accommodate those changes. Operator attentional state represents a promising aspect of operating context for triggering AUIs. Behavioral rather than physiological indices can be used to infer operator attentional state., Method: In Experiment 1, a network analysis task sought to induce states of information overload relative to a baseline. Streams of interaction data were taken from these two states and used to train machine learning classifiers. We implemented these classifiers in Experiment 2 to drive an AUI that automatically calibrated the amount of information displayed to operators., Results: Experiment 1 successfully induced information overload in participants, resulting in lower accuracy, slower completion time, and higher workload. A series of machine learning classifiers detected states of information overload significantly above chance level. Experiment 2 identified four clusters of users who responded significantly differently to the AUIs. The AUIs benefited performance, completion time, and workload in three clusters., Conclusion: Behavioral indices can successfully detect states of information overload and be used to effectively drive an AUI for some user groups. The success of AUIs may be contingent on characteristics of the user group., Application: This research applies to domains seeking real-time assessments of user attentional or psychological state.

The research objective was to predict the impact of techno-creators and techno-inhibitors on the different manifestations of technostress in kindergarten directors in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and telework. The participants were INTEGRA Foundation kindergarten directors, from a sample of 567 kindergartens in Chile. To measure the technostress manifestations, the RED-TIC questionnaire was used as an instrument, and concerning techno-creators and techno-inhibitors, those established in previous research were considered. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) methodology was used, and the model estimation was performed using SmartPLS version 3.0 software. It was obtained that techno-creators correlate positively and significantly with the technostress manifestations. A negative correlation was found between techno-inhibitors and technostress manifestations and techno-creators, but not significant for skepticism and inefficacy manifestations. Therefore, it is concluded that techno-creators lead to technostress manifestations, however, techno-inhibitors did not show a significant effect in reducing these manifestations in the sample studied., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Estrada-Muñoz, Vega-Muñoz, Boada-Grau, Castillo, Müller-Pérez and Contreras-Barraza.)

This research proposes and tests an integrated model to explain how information overload influence vaccine skepticism and vaccination intention. In addition, this research investigates the effectiveness of using a celebrity endorsement strategy in promoting vaccination and compares its effectiveness with other endorsement types. A survey study (Study 1) was conducted to examine the mechanism underlying the impact of the COVID-19 vaccine information overload on vaccine skepticism that, subsequently, affects vaccination intention. It also examined the moderating role of celebrity endorsement trustworthiness. The results indicate that information overload positively influenced vaccine skepticism through cyberchondria and perceived risk of the vaccine, which subsequently reduces vaccination intention. The negative effect of vaccine skepticism on vaccination intention was weakened by the celebrity endorsement that was considered trustworthy. A follow-up experimental study (Study 2) was performed to compare the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement with other endorsement types (i.e., government official and medical expert endorsements). The results showed that the celebrity endorsement was more effective in mitigating the negative effect of vaccine skepticism on vaccination intention compared to government official and medical expert. The findings provide practical insights into how governments can minimize people's vaccine skeptical views and increase their vaccination intentions., (© 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed a significant challenge to higher education and forced academic institutions across the globe to abruptly shift to remote teaching. Because of the emergent transition, higher education institutions continuously face difficulties in creating satisfactory online learning experiences that adhere to the new norms. This study investigates the transition to online learning during Covid-19 to identify factors that influenced students' satisfaction with the online learning environment. Adopting a mixed-method design, we find that students' experience with online learning can be negatively affected by information overload, and perceived technical skill requirements, and describe qualitative evidence that suggest a lack of social interactions, class format, and ambiguous communication also affected perceived learning. This study suggests that to digitalize higher education successfully, institutions need to redesign students' learning experience systematically and re-evaluate traditional pedagogical approaches in the online context., Competing Interests: The authors declare the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (© 2022 British Educational Research Association.)

Background: Although timely and accurate information during the COVID-19 pandemic is essential for containing the disease and reducing mental distress, an infodemic, which refers to an overabundance of information, may trigger unpleasant emotions and reduce compliance. Prior research has shown the negative consequences of an infodemic during the pandemic; however, we know less about which subpopulations are more exposed to the infodemic and are more vulnerable to the adverse psychological and behavioral effects., Objective: This study aimed to examine how sociodemographic factors and information-seeking behaviors affect the perceived information overload during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also investigated the effect of perceived information overload on psychological distress and protective behavior and analyzed the socioeconomic differences in the effects., Methods: The data for this study were obtained from a cross-national survey of residents in 6 jurisdictions in Asia in May 2020. The survey targeted residents aged 18 years or older. A probability-based quota sampling strategy was adopted to ensure that the selected samples matched the population's geographical and demographic characteristics released by the latest available census in each jurisdiction. The final sample included 10,063 respondents. Information overload about COVID-19 was measured by asking the respondents to what extent they feel overwhelmed by news related to COVID-19. The measure of psychological distress was adapted from the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5 (DSM-5). Protective behaviors included personal hygienic behavior and compliance with social distancing measures., Results: Younger respondents and women (b=0.20, 95% CI 0.14 to 0.26) were more likely to perceive information overload. Participants self-perceived as upper or upper-middle class (b=0.19, 95% CI 0.09 to 0.30) and those with full-time jobs (b=0.11, 95% CI 0.04 to 0.17) tended to perceive higher information overload. Respondents who more frequently sought COVID-19 information from newspapers (b=0.12, 95% CI 0.11 to 0.14), television (b=0.07, 95% CI 0.05 to 0.09), and family and friends (b=0.11, 95% CI 0.09 to 0.14) were more likely to feel overwhelmed. In contrast, obtaining COVID-19 information from online news outlets and social media was not associated with perceived information overload. There was a positive relationship between perceived information overload and psychological distress (b=2.18, 95% CI 2.09 to 2.26). Such an association was stronger among urban residents, full-time employees, and those living in privately owned housing. The effect of perceived information overload on protective behavior was not significant., Conclusions: Our findings revealed that respondents who were younger, were female, had a higher socioeconomic status (SES), and had vulnerable populations in the household were more likely to feel overwhelmed by COVID-19 information. Perceived information overload tended to increase psychological distress, and people with higher SES were more vulnerable to this adverse psychological consequence. Effective policies and interventions should be promoted to target vulnerable populations who are more susceptible to the occurrence and negative psychological influence of perceived information overload., (©Xi Chen, Fen Lin, Edmund W Cheng. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 22.03.2022.)

This paper analyzes notions and models of optimized cognition emerging at the intersections of psychology, neuroscience, and computing. What I somewhat polemically call the algorithms of mindfulness describes an ideal that determines algorithmic techniques of the self, geared at emotional resilience and creative cognition. A reframing of rest, exemplified in corporate mindfulness programs and the design of experimental artificial neural networks sits at the heart of this process. Mindfulness trainings provide cues as to this reframing, for they detail each in their own way how intermittent periods of rest are to be recruited to augment our cognitive capacities and combat the effects of stress and information overload. They typically rely on and co-opt neuroscience knowledge about what the brains of North Americans and Europeans do when we rest. Current designs for artificial neural networks draw on the same neuroscience research and incorporate coarse principles of cognition in brains to make machine learning systems more resilient and creative. These algorithmic techniques are primarily conceived to prevent psychopathologies where stress is considered the driving force of success. Against this backdrop, I ask how machine learning systems could be employed to unsettle the concept of pathological cognition itself., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© The Author(s) 2021.)

Background: A relentless flood of information accompanied the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. False news, conspiracy theories, and magical cures were shared with the general public at an alarming rate, which may lead to increased anxiety and stress levels and associated debilitating consequences., Objectives: To measure the level of COVID-19 information overload (COVIO) and assess the association between COVIO and sociodemographic characteristics among the general public., Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted between April and May 2020 using a modified Cancer Information Overload scale. The survey was developed and posted on four social media platforms. The data were only collected from those who consented to participate. COVIO score was classified into high vs. low using the asymmetrical distribution as a guide and conducted a binary logistic regression to examine the factors associated with COVIO., Results: A total number of 584 respondents participated in this study. The mean COVIO score of the respondents was 19.4 (± 4.0). Sources and frequency of receiving COVID-19 information were found to be significant predictors of COVIO. Participants who received information via the broadcast media were more likely to have high COVIO than those who received information via the social media (adjusted odds ratio ([aOR],14.599; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.608-132.559; p = 0.017). Also, participants who received COVID-19 information every minute (aOR, 3.892; 95% CI, 1.124-13.480; p = 0.032) were more likely to have high COVIO than those who received information every week., Conclusion: The source of information and the frequency of receiving COVID-19 information were significantly associated with COVIO. The COVID-19 information is often conflicting, leading to confusion and overload of information in the general population. This can have unfavorable effects on the measures taken to control the transmission and management of COVID-19 infection., (© 2021. W. Montague Cobb-NMA Health Institute.)

The purpose of this paper is to explore why impulsive buying happens under emergency and crisis situations, such as that of COVID-19. Drawing on the cognitive-affective personality system theory (CAPS), we tested the dynamic influence of daily perceived uncertainty on COVID-19 on daily impulsive buying via daily information overload and daily information anxiety in a two-wave experience sampling method (ESM) design. Through a multilevel structural equation model (MSEM) analysis, we found that the daily perceived uncertainty on COVID-19 affected daily information overload, which in turn stimulated daily information anxiety, ultimately determining the daily impulsive buying. Namely, daily information overload and daily information anxiety played a complete chain-mediating role between the daily perceived uncertainty on COVID-19 and daily impulsive buying. The present paper is the first to uncover the important dynamic effect of the perceived uncertainty on COVID-19 on impulsive buying with diary data. Specific implications of these findings are discussed., Competing Interests: Conflict of InterestThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interests., (© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020.)

Based on the information-as-coping perspective, we provided a theoretical framework to understand how the quality of government information and citizens' partisanship impact citizens' wellbeing in terms of satisfaction with life and anxiety during COVID-19. With survey data from 705 respondents in Indonesia, we found that government information quality is of vital importance in helping citizens get ready to fight the pandemic, as well as lowering their anxiety. Our results show that higher information quality leads to a higher ability to respond quickly to the crisis, as well as a reduced level of information overload. While partisanship is a significant predictor of information overload, it had no significant impact on perceived quick response ability. Quick response ability and information overload, in turn, predict anxiety and citizen's satisfaction with life., (© 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

In the post-truth era, one challenge facing science education is the circulation of fake news that distorts the information available for decision-making on issues that have a scientific basis and are controversial for society. In this work, we aimed at designing a learning environment with the objective of equipping students with skills that allow them to deal with socio-scientific issues (SSI) in an infodemic context. To this end, we proposed an educational innovation through design-based research, which was oriented to the treatment of information disseminated in the media and social networks related to COVID-19. We divided this information into four major constructs: virus and disease dynamics; pandemic and environmental crisis; hygiene and protocols; and vaccines, potential solutions, and pharmaceutical industry. On the basis of the activities of the didactic sequence, which included class discussion, interviews with the immediate environment, audiovisual productions, and a final plenary, we identified criteria that students applied to trust or not trust the circulating information and a series of strategies to corroborate the information. In addition, framing COVID-19 as an SSI allowed the discussion of curricular content in science and on sociocultural dimensions that cross the pandemic. Based on the implementation of the teaching-learning sequence, we conclude that the proposed activities favored reflection on critical thinking and awareness of the responsibilities they have as potential disseminators and/or generators of information., Competing Interests: Conflict of InterestThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2022.)

During the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, new health information was being disseminated at unprecedented rates which included ever-changing mandates and regulations, resulting in information overload for many. Shelter in place orders are the pandemic-related information that will be discussed. As these dynamic orders were announced and enforced, mobile populations-people who live in their vans or "van dwellers"-abandoned life on the road and rushed to loved ones to abide by social distancing directives. Others had nowhere to turn. This pilot study of van dweller's information practices focuses on the early weeks of the pandemic and how this population adapted to an overwhelming information environment. Using the information resilience conceptual framework, I describe how van dwellers adapted when a myriad of information and misinformation was circulating. The van dweller community, and their supporters, banded together to provide resources and safe spaces in a time of crisis., (85th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology | Oct. 29 – Nov. 1, 2022 | Pittsburgh, PA. Author(s) retain copyright, but ASIS&T receives an exclusive publication license.)