Research on Public Risk Perception and Mental Health of Public Crisis Events—Taking COVID-19 Pandemic as an Example

Abstract

Public crisis is a catastrophic event that endangers the lives and safety of the masses. It is characterized by sudden outbreak, value neutrality, responsibility bearing, time urgency, process continuity and destructiveness. The global outbreak of COVID-19 is a classic example of a public crisis. This paper examines the public's risk perception and mental health status of public crisis events using COVID-19 as a sample. This study based on a new outbreak of coronary events as the background, in June, 2021 to the outbreak of parts of the public in China online interview and offline questionnaire, the research aims to explore in a new outbreak of crown environment public risk perception characteristics and analyzing risk perception effect of coping style and mental health to the public. I also read a large number of literature related to keywords and made comments on the shortcomings of the research, so as to make guiding guidance in the subsequent research and get better results.During the epidemic period, the government provided free treatment for COVID-19 patients, the government and local non-social organizations cooperated with each other to provide convenience for people living in the closed management area, and the government issued various preferential policies to reduce the public burden. During the epidemic period, government agencies at all levels worked together to inform the public of the specific situation of the epidemic in the form of several press conferences every day. These measures made the information of the epidemic more transparent, enhanced the public's trust in the government, and made the public more familiar with the situation, effectively reducing the public's perception of the risk.Through empirical research on the influencing factors of public risk perception during the COVID-19 epidemic, this study mainly draws the following Conclusions: First, the more unfamiliar and difficult the public is to control the risk events, the higher the public's risk perception will be; Second, epidemic information can significantly affect risk perception; Third, in addition to directly affecting mental health, risk perception can also indirectly affect mental health through negative behaviors, leading to more and more serious psychological problems suffered by more people. Mental health is the single most important factor affecting life satisfaction. Actively establish the wind vane of risk perception, establish a new interpretation framework and practical concept for information dissemination after the occurrence of major events, turn risk discourse into healthy discourse, try to eliminate the uncertainty perception of the masses, and avoid linking risk information with specific groups or individual characteristics.