Going the Distance for COVID-19: Relationships Among News Use, Psychological Distance, Risk Perceptions, and Behavioral Intentions

In this article, we examine the relationship between news media use and levels of psychological distance associated with COVID-19. Our findings suggest that conservative media use is associated with greater perceived distance to the disease, while less partisan news use is associated with a smaller perceived distance. Moreover, perceived distance is associated with perceived severity of COVID-19, the perceived susceptibility associated with the disease, and intentions to get vaccinated/boosted against COVID-19. As a whole, we examined a mediation process through which media use predicts distance, distance then predicts severity and susceptibility, and distance, severity, and susceptibility predict behavioral intentions.