Affective and Cognitive Responses to Perceived Intra-COVID-19 Misinformation Exposure: Comparing Sequential Mechanisms Influencing Post-COVID Information Seeking and Avoidance Intention

Misinformation research has traditionally focused on its attitudinal effects, yet the impact of perceived misinformation exposure (PME)—individuals' subjective perception of misinformation—on informational intentions remains underexplored. This study addresses this gap by adopting a longitudinal perspective to examine how intra-pandemic PME influences post-pandemic information-seeking and avoidance intentions, as well as the sequential mediating cognitive and affective processes, using a model comparison approach. Drawing on a two-wave panel dataset (N=694) collected from the pandemic (August 2022) to post-pandemic (May 2023) periods, along with a cross-sectional dataset (N=1913) from the post-pandemic period (April to July 2023) in Hong Kong, the study reveals that intra-pandemic PME encourages both post-pandemic information-seeking and avoidance. The results indicate that the serial mediation process aligns more closely with a cognition-dominant model than an emotion-dominant model, as confirmed by both cross-sectional and panel data. Specifically, individuals perceiving misinformation first engage in cognitive processing (misinformation elaboration), which subsequently triggers negative emotions—loss-based emotions (e.g., fear) related to COVID-19 risks—that encourage information-seeking. Among the two negative emotions, loss-based emotions promote information-seeking while reducing avoidance, whereas ethics-based emotions (e.g., anger) encourage avoidance but discourage seeking.