ISSN: 2222-6990
Open access
Sharing fake news on social media is regarded as one of the vital threats to national democracy, social stability, and even the mental health of individuals. In contrast, insufficient research focuses on the motives behind such sharing. In this study, we adopted a quantitative approach to examine how possessed social media literacy and rational choice factors affect Chinese social media users' fake news sharing behaviors, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used an online survey to collect data from 416 Chinese WeChat users. We found that fake news sharing behavior was predicted by specific rational choice factors, which were status seeking, trust in social media, and fear of missing out. Meanwhile, we find that relationships between the above factors and fake news sharing behavior can be effectively moderated by an individual's social media literacy. This study reinforces the role of social media literacy in combating the spread of fake news. It expands the existing literature on fake news sharing by highlighting the importance of user-based strategies in addressing this global issue. Future research should consider the impact of characteristics of different sample groups on fake news sharing behavior.
Abel, J. P., Buff, C. L., & Burr, S. A. (2016). Social Media and the Fear of Missing Out: Scale Development and Assessment. Journal of Business & Economics Research (JBER), 14(1), 33–44. doi: 10.19030/jber.v14i1.9554
Ahmad, T., Aliaga Lazarte, E. A., & Mirjalili, S. (2022). A Systematic Literature Review on Fake News in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Can AI Propose a Solution? Applied Sciences, 12(24), 12727. doi: 10.3390/app122412727
Anspach, N. M., & Carlson, T. N. (2020). What to Believe? Social Media Commentary and Belief in Misinformation. Political Behavior, 42(3), 697–718. doi: 10.1007/s11109-018-9515-z
Apuke, O. D., & Omar, B. (2020a). Modelling the antecedent factors that affect online fake news sharing on COVID-19: The moderating role of fake news knowledge. Health Education Research, 35(5), 490–503. doi: 10.1093/her/cyaa030
Apuke, O. D., & Omar, B. (2020b). User motivation in fake news sharing during the COVID-19 pandemic: An application of the uses and gratification theory. Online Information Review, 45(1), 220–239. doi: 10.1108/OIR-03-2020-0116
Apuke, O. D., & Omar, B. (2021a). Fake news and COVID-19: Modelling the predictors of fake news sharing among social media users. Telematics and Informatics, 56, 101475. doi: 10.1016/j.tele.2020.101475
Apuke, O. D., & Omar, B. (2021b). Social media affordances and information abundance: Enabling fake news sharing during the COVID-19 health crisis. Health Informatics Journal, 27(3), 146045822110214. doi: 10.1177/14604582211021470
Baek, H., Lee, S., & Kim, S. (2021). Are female users equally active? An empirical study of the gender imbalance in Korean online news commenting. Telematics and Informatics, 62, 101635. doi: 10.1016/j.tele.2021.101635
Balakrishnan, V., Ng, K. S., & Rahim, H. A. (2021). To share or not to share – The underlying motives of sharing fake news amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia. Technology in Society, 66, 101676. doi: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2021.101676
Balakrishnan, V., Ng, W. Z., Soo, M. C., Han, G. J., & Lee, C. J. (2022). Infodemic and fake news – A comprehensive overview of its global magnitude during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021: A scoping review. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 78, 103144. doi: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103144
Baumeister, R. F., & Tice, D. M. (1990). Point-Counterpoints: Anxiety and Social Exclusion. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 9(2), 165–195. doi: 10.1521/jscp.1990.9.2.165
Bryanov, K., & Vziatysheva, V. (2021). Determinants of individuals’ belief in fake news: A scoping review determinants of belief in fake news. PLOS ONE, 16(6), e0253717. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0253717
Buchanan, T. (2020). Why do people spread false information online? The effects of message and viewer characteristics on self-reported likelihood of sharing social media disinformation. PLOS ONE, 15(10), e0239666. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0239666
Cho, H., Cannon, J., Lopez, R., & Li, W. (2022). Social media literacy: A conceptual framework. New Media & Society, 14614448211068530. doi: 10.1177/14614448211068530
Chou, W.-Y. S., Gaysynsky, A., & Vanderpool, R. C. (2021). The COVID-19 Misinfodemic: Moving beyond fact-checking. Health Education & Behavior, 48(1), 9–13.
Church, M., Thambusamy, R., & Nemati, H. (2020). User misrepresentation in online social networks: How competition and altruism impact online disclosure behaviours. Behaviour & Information Technology, 39(12), 1320–1340. doi: 10.1080/0144929X.2019.1667440
Dabbous, A., Aoun Barakat, K., & de Quero Navarro, B. (2022). Fake news detection and social media trust: A cross-cultural perspective. Behaviour & Information Technology, 41(14), 2953–2972. doi: 10.1080/0144929X.2021.1963475
Foy, S. L., Schleifer, C., & Tiryakian, E. A. (2018). The Rise of Rational Choice Theory as a Scientific/Intellectual Movement in Sociology. The American Sociologist, 49(1), 16–36. doi: 10.1007/s12108-017-9335-3
Gagliardone, I., Diepeveen, S., Findlay, K., Olaniran, S., Pohjonen, M., & Tallam, E. (2021). Demystifying the COVID-19 Infodemic: Conspiracies, Context, and the Agency of Users. Social Media + Society, 7(3), 205630512110442. doi: 10.1177/20563051211044233
Gioia, F., Fioravanti, G., Casale, S., & Boursier, V. (2021). The Effects of the Fear of Missing Out on People’s Social Networking Sites Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediating Role of Online Relational Closeness and Individuals’ Online Communication Attitude. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12. Retrieved from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.620442
Grinberg, N., Joseph, K., Friedland, L., Swire-Thompson, B., & Lazer, D. (2019). Fake news on Twitter during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Science, 363(6425), 374–378. doi: 10.1126/science.aau2706
Hair, J. F., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2013). Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling: Rigorous Applications, Better Results and Higher Acceptance. Long Range Planning, 46(1), 1–12. doi: 10.1016/j.lrp.2013.01.001
Herfeld, C. (2020). The Diversity of Rational Choice Theory: A Review Note. Topoi, 39(2), 329–347. doi: 10.1007/s11245-018-9588-7
Huang, Q., Lei, S., & Ni, B. (2022). Perceived Information Overload and Unverified Information Sharing on WeChat Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Moderated Mediation Model of Anxiety and Perceived Herd. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 837820. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.837820
Islam, A. K. M. N., Laato, S., Talukder, S., & Sutinen, E. (2020). Misinformation sharing and social media fatigue during COVID-19: An affordance and cognitive load perspective. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 159, 120201. doi: 10.1016/j.techfore.2020.120201
Jr, E. C. T., Yee, A. Z. H., Ong, J., Lee, J. C. B., Xu, D., Han, Z., … Cayabyab, M. Y. (2021). Developing a Perceived Social Media Literacy Scale: Evidence from Singapore. International Journal of Communication, 15(0), 22. Retrieved from https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/16118
Kemei, J., Alaazi, D. A., Tulli, M., Kennedy, M., Tunde-Byass, M., Bailey, P., … Salami, B. (2022). A scoping review of COVID-19 online mis/disinformation in Black communities. Journal of Global Health, 12, 05026. doi: 10.7189/jogh.12.05026
Kim, J., Lee, C., & Elias, T. (2015). Factors affecting information sharing in social networking sites amongst university students: Application of the knowledge-sharing model to social networking sites. Online Information Review, 39(3), 290–309. doi: 10.1108/OIR-01-2015-0022
Kong, H., Mahamed, M., Abdullah, Z., & Abas, W. A. W. (2023). Systematic Literature Review on Driving Factors of COVID-19 Related Fake News Sharing on Social Media. Studies in Media and Communication, 11(7), 29. doi: 10.11114/smc.v11i7.6228
Ku, K. Y. L., Kong, Q., Song, Y., Deng, L., Kang, Y., & Hu, A. (2019). What predicts adolescents’ critical thinking about real-life news? The roles of social media news consumption and news media literacy. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 33, 100570. doi: 10.1016/j.tsc.2019.05.004
Lee, C. S., & Ma, L. (2012). News sharing in social media: The effect of gratifications and prior experience. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(2), 331–339. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2011.10.002
Leng, Y., Zhai, Y., Sun, S., Wu, Y., Selzer, J., Strover, S., … Ding, Y. (2021). Misinformation During the COVID-19 Outbreak in China: Cultural, Social and Political Entanglements. IEEE Transactions on Big Data, 7(1), 69–80. doi: 10.1109/TBDATA.2021.3055758
Logan, K., Bright, L. F., & Grau, S. L. (2018). “Unfriend Me, Please!”: Social Media Fatigue and the Theory of Rational Choice. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 26(4), 357–367. doi: 10.1080/10696679.2018.1488219
Mahamad, T. E. T., Ambran, N. S., Azman, N. A. M., & de Luna, D. B. (n.d.). Insights into social media users’ motives for sharing unverified news.
Meel, P., & Vishwakarma, D. K. (2020). Fake news, rumor, information pollution in social media and web: A contemporary survey of state-of-the-arts, challenges and opportunities. Expert Systems with Applications, 153, 112986. doi: 10.1016/j.eswa.2019.112986
Melchior, C., & Oliveira, M. (2023). A systematic literature review of the motivations to share fake news on social media platforms and how to fight them. New Media & Society, 14614448231174224. doi: 10.1177/14614448231174224
Memon, M. A., Cheah, J.-H., Ramayah, T., Ting, H., Chuah, F., & Cham, T. H. (2019). MODERATION ANALYSIS: ISSUES AND GUIDELINES. Journal of Applied Structural Equation Modeling, 3(1), i–xi. doi: 10.47263/JASEM.3(1)01
Orhan, A. (2023). Fake news detection on social media: The predictive role of university students’ critical thinking dispositions and new media literacy. Smart Learning Environments, 10(1), 29. doi: 10.1186/s40561-023-00248-8
Ouedraogo, N. (2020, May 15). Social Media Literacy in Crisis Context: Fake News Consumption during COVID-19 Lockdown [SSRN Scholarly Paper]. Rochester, NY. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3601466
Polanco-Levicán, K., & Salvo-Garrido, S. (2022). Understanding Social Media Literacy: A Systematic Review of the Concept and Its Competences. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(14), 8807. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19148807
Pundir, V., Devi, E. B., & Nath, V. (2021). Arresting fake news sharing on social media: A theory of planned behavior approach. Management Research Review, 44(8), 1108–1138. doi: 10.1108/MRR-05-2020-0286
Rathore, F., & Farooq, F. (2020). Information Overload and Infodemic in the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association, (0), 1. doi: 10.5455/JPMA.38
Roberts, J. A., & David, M. E. (2020). The Social Media Party: Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), Social Media Intensity, Connection, and Well-Being. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 36(4), 386–392. doi: 10.1080/10447318.2019.1646517
Rocha, Y. M., De Moura, G. A., Desidério, G. A., De Oliveira, C. H., Lourenço, F. D., & De Figueiredo Nicolete, L. D. (2021). The impact of fake news on social media and its influence on health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review. Journal of Public Health. doi: 10.1007/s10389-021-01658-z
Salehan, M., Kim, D. J., & Koo, C. (2018). A study of the effect of social trust, trust in social networking services, and sharing attitude, on two dimensions of personal information sharing behavior. The Journal of Supercomputing, 74(8), 3596–3619. doi: 10.1007/s11227-016-1790-z
Sampat, B., & Raj, S. (2022). Fake or real news? Understanding the gratifications and personality traits of individuals sharing fake news on social media platforms. Aslib Journal of Information Management, 74(5), 840–876. doi: 10.1108/AJIM-08-2021-0232
Samya, S. S. R., Tonmoy, Md. S. I., & Rabbi, Md. F. (2023). A cognitive behaviour data analysis on the use of social media in global south context focusing on Bangladesh. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 4236. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-30125-w
Schuetz, P. (2021). Fly in the Face of Bias: Algorithmic Bias in Law Enforcement’s Facial Recognition Technology and the Need for an Adaptive Legal Framework. Minnesota Journal of Law & Inequality, 39(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.24926/25730037.391
Snijders, C., Conijn, R., de Fouw, E., & van Berlo, K. (2023). Humans and Algorithms Detecting Fake News: Effects of Individual and Contextual Confidence on Trust in Algorithmic Advice. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 39(7), 1483–1494. doi: 10.1080/10447318.2022.2097601
Talwar, S., Dhir, A., Kaur, P., Zafar, N., & Alrasheedy, M. (2019). Why do people share fake news? Associations between the dark side of social media use and fake news sharing behavior. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 51, 72–82. doi: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2019.05.026
Tandoc, E. C., Lim, D., & Ling, R. (2020). Diffusion of disinformation: How social media users respond to fake news and why. Journalism, 21(3), 381–398. doi: 10.1177/1464884919868325
Thompson, N., Wang, X., & Daya, P. (2020). Determinants of News Sharing Behavior on Social Media. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 60(6), 593–601. doi: 10.1080/08874417.2019.1566803
Universitas Syiah Kuala, Indonesia, Syam, H. M., Nurrahmi, F., & Universitas Syiah Kuala, Indonesia. (2020). “I Don’t Know If It Is Fake or Real News” How Little Indonesian University Students Understand Social Media Literacy. Jurnal Komunikasi: Malaysian Journal of Communication, 36(2), 92–105. doi: 10.17576/JKMJC-2020-3602-06
University, N. T. (n.d.). “FOMO” a vicious circle for social media users. Retrieved July 30, 2024, from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-10-fomo-vicious-circle-social-media.html
Wei, L., Gong, J., Xu, J., Eeza Zainal Abidin, N., & Destiny Apuke, O. (2023). Do social media literacy skills help in combating fake news spread? Modelling the moderating role of social media literacy skills in the relationship between rational choice factors and fake news sharing behaviour. Telematics and Informatics, 76, 101910. doi: 10.1016/j.tele.2022.101910
Wu, D., Zhao, Y. C., Wang, X., Song, S., & Lian, J. (2023). Digital Hoarding in Everyday Hedonic Social Media Use: The Roles of Fear of Missing out (FoMO) and Social Media Affordances. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 0(0), 1–16. doi: 10.1080/10447318.2023.2233139
Kong, H., Mahamed, M., & Abdullah, Z. (2024). Combat Fake News Sharing on Social Media: A Rational Choice and Social Media Literacy Perspective. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 14(10), 997–1015.
Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s)
Published by HRMARS (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode