Too Far to Care? The Role of Psychological Proximity in Public Attention and Fear for Ebola

• In Event: Health Risks: Ebola, Polio, Violence, Emergencies

Abstract

Previous studies have shown the potential of Twitter as a tracking medium for epidemics, but these analyses have not yet yielded generalizable insights about human responses to health crises. Building on Construal Level Theory, this research examined how public attention and fear for the 2014 Ebola outbreak responded to gradual changes in spatial and social closeness of the outbreak, and to the severity of the outbreak. Number of tweets, Ebola infections and fatalities were tracked across 7 months, as the outbreak spread from West Africa to Europe and the US. Twitter content was coded for psychological closeness, and for fear for self and others across a time frame of 3.5 months. Findings show that, even though the vast majority of Ebola infections and deaths occurred in West Africa, public attention and expressions of fear mostly responded to the psychological proximity of Ebola. Especially fear for self was related to psychological proximity. These findings point to the limits of the human condition in caring for psychologically distant others.

Authors

• Liza Van Lent, Radboud U Nijmegen

• Hande Sungur, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

• Enny Henrica Das, Radboud University Nijmegen