The COVID-19 pandemic triggered not only a global health crisis but also an infodemic, an overload of information from diverse sources influencing public perception and emotional responses. In this context, fear emerged as a central emotional reaction, shaped by both media exposure and demographic factors. In this study, we analyzed the relationship between individuals' self-reported levels of fear about COVID-19 and the information sources they rely on, across nine source categories, including medical experts, government institutions, media, and personal networks. In particular, we defined a score that ranks fear levels based on self-reported concerns about the pandemic, collected through the Delphi CTIS survey in the United States between May 2021 and June 2022. We found that both fear levels and information source usage closely follow COVID-19 infection trends, exhibit strong correlations within each group (fear levels across sources are strongly correlated, as are patterns of source usage), and vary significantly across demographic groups, particularly by age and education. Applying causal inference methods, we found that among age, education, and information source, the latter is the most influential factor affecting individuals' fear levels. We further quantified the impact of different information sources on fear by estimating the average treatment effect, indicating how each source alters fear relative to a control. Furthermore, we demonstrated that information source preferences can reliably match the political orientation of U.S. states. These findings highlight the importance of information ecosystem dynamics in shaping emotional and behavioral responses during large-scale crises.

翻译：COVID-19大流行不仅引发了一场全球健康危机，也带来了一场信息流行病——来自不同渠道的信息过载影响了公众认知和情绪反应。在此背景下，恐惧成为一种核心的情绪反应，其形成既受媒体曝光影响，也受人口因素影响。在本研究中，我们分析了个人自我报告的COVID-19恐惧水平与其所依赖的信息来源之间的关系，涵盖包括医学专家、政府机构、媒体和个人网络在内的九类信息来源。具体而言，我们定义了一个基于自我报告疫情担忧程度的恐惧水平评分，该数据通过2021年5月至2022年6月期间在美国进行的Delphi CTIS调查收集。我们发现，恐惧水平和信息来源使用情况均紧密跟随COVID-19感染趋势，在各组内部表现出强相关性（不同来源间的恐惧水平高度相关，信息来源使用模式也高度相关），且在不同人口群体间存在显著差异，尤其在年龄和教育程度方面。应用因果推断方法，我们发现，在年龄、教育程度和信息来源三者中，后者是影响个人恐惧水平的最重要因素。我们进一步通过估计平均处理效应量化了不同信息来源对恐惧的影响，表明了各信息来源相对于对照组如何改变恐惧水平。此外，我们证明了信息来源偏好能够可靠地匹配美国各州的政治倾向。这些发现凸显了信息生态系统动态在大规模危机期间塑造情绪和行为反应方面的重要性。