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Perceived Information Overload and Unverified Information Sharing on WeChat Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Moderated Mediation Model of Anxiety and Perceived Herd

Individuals’ unverified information sharing on social media, namely, sharing information without verification, is a major cause of the widespread misinformation amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The association between perceived information overload and unverified information sharing has been well documen...

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Autores principales: Huang, Qing, Lei, Sihan, Ni, Binbin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8853730/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35185742
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.837820
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author Huang, Qing
Lei, Sihan
Ni, Binbin
author_facet Huang, Qing
Lei, Sihan
Ni, Binbin
author_sort Huang, Qing
collection PubMed
description Individuals’ unverified information sharing on social media, namely, sharing information without verification, is a major cause of the widespread misinformation amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The association between perceived information overload and unverified information sharing has been well documented in the cognitive overload approach. However, little is known about the underlying mechanism of this process. This study aims to explore the mediating role of anxiety and the moderating role of perceived herd between perceived information overload and unverified information sharing on WeChat. Anxiety demonstrates people’s emotional response to the pandemic, whereas perceived herd describes a willingness to share certain information if it has been shared by many. The results of an online survey in China (N = 525) showed that perceived information overload was positively associated with unverified information sharing. In addition, this relationship was partially mediated by anxiety. Moreover, perceived herd positively moderated the link between anxiety and unverified information sharing, such that the indirect effect of perceived information overload on unverified information sharing via anxiety was significant in conditions where the level of perceived herd was high, whereas the indirect effect was not significant in conditions where the level of perceived herd was low. The moderated mediation model extends the cognitive overload approach and indicates that unverified information sharing is not only an individual strategy to cope with information overload but also a herding behavior to manage anxiety. Practical implications for curbing people’s tendencies toward unverified information sharing on social media are discussed.
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spelling pubmed-88537302022-02-18 Perceived Information Overload and Unverified Information Sharing on WeChat Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Moderated Mediation Model of Anxiety and Perceived Herd Huang, Qing Lei, Sihan Ni, Binbin Front Psychol Psychology Individuals’ unverified information sharing on social media, namely, sharing information without verification, is a major cause of the widespread misinformation amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The association between perceived information overload and unverified information sharing has been well documented in the cognitive overload approach. However, little is known about the underlying mechanism of this process. This study aims to explore the mediating role of anxiety and the moderating role of perceived herd between perceived information overload and unverified information sharing on WeChat. Anxiety demonstrates people’s emotional response to the pandemic, whereas perceived herd describes a willingness to share certain information if it has been shared by many. The results of an online survey in China (N = 525) showed that perceived information overload was positively associated with unverified information sharing. In addition, this relationship was partially mediated by anxiety. Moreover, perceived herd positively moderated the link between anxiety and unverified information sharing, such that the indirect effect of perceived information overload on unverified information sharing via anxiety was significant in conditions where the level of perceived herd was high, whereas the indirect effect was not significant in conditions where the level of perceived herd was low. The moderated mediation model extends the cognitive overload approach and indicates that unverified information sharing is not only an individual strategy to cope with information overload but also a herding behavior to manage anxiety. Practical implications for curbing people’s tendencies toward unverified information sharing on social media are discussed. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-02-03 /pmc/articles/PMC8853730/ /pubmed/35185742 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.837820 Text en Copyright © 2022 Huang, Lei and Ni. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Huang, Qing
Lei, Sihan
Ni, Binbin
Perceived Information Overload and Unverified Information Sharing on WeChat Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Moderated Mediation Model of Anxiety and Perceived Herd
title Perceived Information Overload and Unverified Information Sharing on WeChat Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Moderated Mediation Model of Anxiety and Perceived Herd
title_full Perceived Information Overload and Unverified Information Sharing on WeChat Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Moderated Mediation Model of Anxiety and Perceived Herd
title_fullStr Perceived Information Overload and Unverified Information Sharing on WeChat Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Moderated Mediation Model of Anxiety and Perceived Herd
title_full_unstemmed Perceived Information Overload and Unverified Information Sharing on WeChat Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Moderated Mediation Model of Anxiety and Perceived Herd
title_short Perceived Information Overload and Unverified Information Sharing on WeChat Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Moderated Mediation Model of Anxiety and Perceived Herd
title_sort perceived information overload and unverified information sharing on wechat amid the covid-19 pandemic: a moderated mediation model of anxiety and perceived herd
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8853730/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35185742
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.837820
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