From information seeking to information avoidance: Understanding the health information behavior during a global health crisis

Highlights • The study examines the factors leading to information avoidance during COVID-19 pandemic.• Mass Media, Print Media and official websites are used for information seeking during the pandemic.• Only Social Media exposure results in information overload and information anxiety.• Information overload is strongly associated with information anxiety which gives rise to information avoidance.• We extend the applicability of S-O-R model to the information behavior domain, especially during the uncertain times.