Mediated Compliance: Anxiety and Cognition Under Lockdown

Abstract

Media exposure during the pandemic is functioned as citizen’s primary channel of orientation to state authority. Lockdown during COVID-19 pandemic, required near-total public compliance with an unprecedented state directive, communicated and sustained through mass media. This study examined the relationship between media exposure, anxiety and working memory among 40 healthy Indian adults during the lockdown period. The two phase protocol was completed; a survey assessing COVID-19 media exposure, subjective loneliness (UCLA Loneliness Scale), social distancing behaviour and state anxiety (STAI-Y1), followed 24 hours later by a visual 2-back working memory task. Results showed a significant positive correlation between media exposure and anxiety (r=.276, p= .042), and between subjective negatively correlated with working memory reaction time (r= -.646, p<.001), though not with response accuracy. The results are discussing in terms of crisis communication strategy, procedural legitimacy and the cognitive demands placed on citizens expected to process and comply with rapidly evolving government mandates during a public health emergency.