Examining the antecedents of everyday rumor retransmission
Information Technology & People
ISSN: 0959-3845
Article publication date: 30 June 2021
Issue publication date: 6 June 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates factors that motivate social media users to retransmit rumors. We focus on everyday rumors rather than catastrophic rumors and develop a model of everyday rumor retransmission based on the uses and gratification theory, the rumor retransmission model, and the basic law of rumor.
Design/methodology/approach
An Internet survey is conducted to collect data and test the proposed model. This study’s hypotheses are tested through partial least squares regression analysis.
Findings
The results show that socializing, information seeking and status seeking increase the intention to retransmit rumors. Perceived rumor credibility has a moderating effect on the impacts of socializing and status seeking on retransmission intention.
Originality/value
Our research model provides a theoretical foundation for future studies that want to explore motivations or values that determine rumor-sharing intention on social media. The findings can help government agencies and businesses to manage rumor retransmission on social media.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the Intelligent Electronic Commerce Research Center from the Featured Areas Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan.
Citation
Lin, T.-C., Huang, S.-L. and Liao, W.-X. (2022), "Examining the antecedents of everyday rumor retransmission", Information Technology & People, Vol. 35 No. 4, pp. 1326-1345. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-09-2020-0667
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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