Crisis factors, emotions, and perceived informational channel significance during emergencies

Individuals’ information seeking and the role of emotions are important to crisis communication research. A survey was conducted (N = 1100) to examine the chain effects of crisis factors on college young adults’ discrete emotions and perceived channel significance. Key findings suggest that crisis factors affect channel significance both directly and indirectly. Crisis factors overall elicit more fear and anxiety (attribution-independent emotions) than anger and sympathy (attribution-dependent emotions). Uncertainty does not affect perceived channel significance, while urgency prompts individuals to seek out non-traditional media and severity affects information seeking on all channels. Attribution-independent emotions such as fear and sadness have positive mediating effects, and attribution-dependent emotions such as anger and sympathy have negative mediating effects. Finally, media richness per se may not be a prominent concern during emergencies.