Information Avoidance in the Pandemic Era: A Literature Review

The COVID-19 pandemics resulted in a crisis in various aspects, such as the extreme number of deaths, the restriction of social activity, the paralysis of economic activity, and the uncertainty of Science. On the other hand, the internet and digital platforms do not constantly share information that occurs around COVID-19. This leads to an avoidance of the information found. "Any behaviour intended to prevent or delay the acquisition of available but potentially unwanted information" is the definition of information avoidance. This article aims to reveal how information avoidance can occur. This article proposes a systematic literature review. A methodical search query has been applied to Scopus to search for academic articles. Then the recalled article is assessed for suitability through a controlled literature selection procedure. The findings clearly show that psychological conditions due to the fear that emerges are one of the causes of information avoidance, in addition to the information overload that entails, as if there is uncertainty about scientific information, so that there is a sceptical attitude towards any information received.