Investigating the psychological mechanism of individuals' health misinformation dissemination on social media

Rui Gu, Mengxiang LI

    Research output: Chapter in book/report/conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

    Abstract

    Health misinformation dissemination on social media has caused severely negative consequences to individuals' healthcare and public health. While a large body of research on misinformation dissemination on social media exists, rare research has investigated the psychological mechanism underlying individuals' dissemination behavior. The knowledge regarding the underlying mechanism is critical not only to developing an in-depth and complete understanding of the phenomenon but also to identifying and designing effective interventions to reduce the misinformation dissemination. Anchoring on SOR paradigm and the related literature on ignorance and arousal, we develop a research model to elucidate the psychological mechanism underlying individuals' health misinformation dissemination on social media. We propose that domain knowledge deficit and emotional arousal make salient influence on dissemination behavior through credibility judgment, overestimating own ability to judge, and underestimating the negative consequences of misinformation dissemination. Research findings would make significant implications to scholars and practitioners.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationInternational Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2020 - Making Digital Inclusive
    Subtitle of host publicationBlending the Local and the Global
    PublisherAssociation for Information Systems
    ISBN (Electronic)9781733632553
    Publication statusPublished - Dec 2020
    Event2020 International Conference on Information Systems - Making Digital Inclusive: Blending the Local and the Global, ICIS 2020 - Virtual, Online, India
    Duration: 13 Dec 202016 Dec 2020

    Publication series

    NameInternational Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2020 - Making Digital Inclusive: Blending the Local and the Global

    Conference

    Conference2020 International Conference on Information Systems - Making Digital Inclusive: Blending the Local and the Global, ICIS 2020
    Country/TerritoryIndia
    CityVirtual, Online
    Period13/12/2016/12/20

    Scopus Subject Areas

    • Computer Science Applications
    • Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty
    • Library and Information Sciences
    • Applied Mathematics

    User-Defined Keywords

    • Dissemination
    • Health misinformation
    • Social media

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