3.4. Materials

According to the levels of independent variables referred to above, we designed experimental materials with three types of color scheme (cool, warm, and mixed) and two forms of data presentation (choropleth maps and graduated symbol maps), displaying the distribution of COVID‐19 infections in Hubei Province. The statistical data of infected people were obtained from the website of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (http://www.chinacdc.cn/jkzt/crb/zl/szkb_11803/jszl_11809/). In order to avoid the familiarity effect, datasets used in choropleth and graduated symbol maps were different within groups.

The choropleth maps (a1, a2, a3) were based on the number of people diagnosed with COVID‐19 in Hubei Province on February 5, 2020, and the data were classified into five levels (10–99, 100–499, 500–999, 1,000–4,999, 5,000–50,000). Graduated symbol maps (b1, b2, b3) were based on the number of people diagnosed with COVID‐19 in Hubei Province on March 1, 2020, and the data were classified into five levels (10–99, 100–499, 500–999, 1,000–1,999, 2,000–11,000). All the material maps (Figure 1) were made in ArcMap 10.2 software.

Experimental materials: (a1) warm color and choropleth map; (a2) cool color and choropleth map; (a3) mixed color and choropleth map; (b1) warm color and graduated symbol map; (b2) cool color and graduated symbol map; and (b3) mixed color and graduated symbol map