Following an established approach (Diener et al., 2010), we constructed an index of emotional well-being by subtracting the average of the negative affect measures (anger, sadness, stress, and worry; α = .769) from the average of the positive affect measures (smile/laugh, enjoyment, and happiness; α = .691). This overall index served as the dependent variable in our analyses. We coded whether participants were residing in Hubei Province, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. Because the monthly household income measures used in the two surveys differed in the number of income brackets offered, we transformed them for use in our analyses. Specifically, due to the ordinal nature of the scale items (e.g., 5,000-7,999 RMB; 8,000-11,999 RMB; … 50,000 RMB or higher), we, following an established approach (Hout, 2004), recoded each response by taking the midpoint (e.g., 6,499 RMB) of the respective income interval when a fixed-range scale item was selected (e.g., 5,000-7,999 RMB). When an open-range item was chosen (e.g., 50,000 RMB or higher), we recoded the response using the lower bound (e.g., 50,000 RMB). We then linearly transformed the value by dividing it by 1,000 so that the monthly household income is measured in units of 1,000 RMB. Furthermore, we averaged the items for perceived knowledge (r = .595) and sense of control (r = .579), respectively, into a single measure. We also counted the number of objective knowledge questions each participant answered correctly, which served as a measure of actual knowledge.