Attitudes, behaviours and sources of information among social media users towards Covid-19: a cross-cultural explanatory study

Researchers, policymakers and societies alike are increasingly discussing the New Coronavirus situation. The European Commission, national governments and private foundations are investing large amounts of money for research, focusing on finding the potential solution for this global pandemic. At the same time, the media are flooded with information regarding the virus, both from credible sources and of unverified origin. To be able to curb the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated misinformation, we need to understand the basic principles that govern knowledge diffusion. We leverage the wide usage of social media to collect the knowledge diffusion data sources at the global scale. In particular, we study public awareness, opinions on Covid-19, and the role of various communication channels in the propagation of myths and facts about the virus. The study is based on a large-scale online survey available in more than 26 languages, aiming to gather information from more than 14.000 individuals Respondents are asked about their general knowledge about Covid-19, measures regarding prevention of the spread of the virus, opinions about myths and facts, and the estimation of the impact the virus will have on the society. Additionally, the survey contains questions relating to working from home, division of responsibilities regarding child care in countries were schools and kindergartens are closed. The questionnaire also investigates attitudes towards volunteering in times of the pandemic.