Cellphone addiction during the Covid-19 outbreak: How online social anxiety and cyber danger belief mediate the influence of personality

Zehui Zhan, Qing Wei, Jon Chao Hong*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

43 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The highly contagious Covid-19 virus is spreading around the world, and quarantining at home has become one of the main preventative behaviors, but it has also led to news blackouts, affecting people's normal life and interactions. In order to determine a predictor of cellphone addiction (CPA), the present study, based on the Risk of Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) model, investigated the relationship between personality (Neuroticism and Extraversion) and CPA during the epidemic, mediated by online social anxiety (OSA) and cyber danger belief (CDB). A total of 683 questionnaires were collected through snowball sampling and analyzed by Mplus. Results indicated that neurotic and extroverted individuals developed CPA through different mediating factors. Neuroticism affected CPA through OSA while Extraversion affected CPA through CDB. These findings highlight the importance of different mechanisms of individuals with different personalities. Corresponding cognitive treatments on the perception of social anxiety and cyber danger are recommended on neurotic and extroverted individuals, respectively, in order to reduce their degree of CPA.

Original languageEnglish
Article number106790
JournalComputers in Human Behavior
Volume121
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021 Aug

Keywords

  • Cellphone addiction
  • Covid-19
  • Cyber danger belief
  • Online social anxiety
  • Personality

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • General Psychology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Cellphone addiction during the Covid-19 outbreak: How online social anxiety and cyber danger belief mediate the influence of personality'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this