Article: Factors influencing users' rumour spreading intention during public health emergencies: based on protection motivation theory Journal: International Journal of Mobile Communications (IJMC) 2025 Vol.25 No.1 pp.19 - 39 Abstract: With the development of social media and information technology, dealing with the infodemic in public health emergencies has become particularly important. Existing research on exploring the primary rumour-spreading motivation and process under the COVID-19 context is limited. This study aims to explore the factors influencing rumour spreading and reveals its mediation process and boundary condition. Based on protection motivation theory and using structural equation modelling analysing data from 423 users, the results showed that: 1) issue involvement has a positive effect on both threat appraisal (perceived severity and perceived vulnerability) and coping appraisal (self-efficacy and response efficacy), however, the effect of issue involvement on response cost is not significant; 2) perceived vulnerability and coping appraisal positively influence the intention to spread rumour by forming the attitude to spread rumour (protection motivation); 3) when the tie strength between the user and the information receivers is at a high level, the user's attitude to spread rumour has a more positive effect on intention to spread rumour. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Factors influencing users' rumour spreading intention during public health emergencies: based on protection motivation theory

Authors: Peng Yu; Xin Zhang; Liang Ma

Addresses: School of Management Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan, 250014, China ' School of Management Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan, 250014, China ' School of Management Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan, 250014, China

Abstract: With the development of social media and information technology, dealing with the infodemic in public health emergencies has become particularly important. Existing research on exploring the primary rumour-spreading motivation and process under the COVID-19 context is limited. This study aims to explore the factors influencing rumour spreading and reveals its mediation process and boundary condition. Based on protection motivation theory and using structural equation modelling analysing data from 423 users, the results showed that: 1) issue involvement has a positive effect on both threat appraisal (perceived severity and perceived vulnerability) and coping appraisal (self-efficacy and response efficacy), however, the effect of issue involvement on response cost is not significant; 2) perceived vulnerability and coping appraisal positively influence the intention to spread rumour by forming the attitude to spread rumour (protection motivation); 3) when the tie strength between the user and the information receivers is at a high level, the user's attitude to spread rumour has a more positive effect on intention to spread rumour.

Keywords: rumour spreading; protection motivation theory; issue involvement; intention to spread rumour.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMC.2025.142955

International Journal of Mobile Communications, 2025 Vol.25 No.1, pp.19 - 39

Accepted: 02 Oct 2023
Published online: 02 Dec 2024 *

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Title: Factors influencing users' rumour spreading intention during public health emergencies: based on protection motivation theory

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