Purpose

Technology has eased access to information. During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, ease of access and transmission of information via social media has led to ambiguity, misinformation and uncertainty. This research studies the aforementioned behaviours of information sharing and verification related to COVID-19, in the context of social media.

Design/methodology/approach

Two studies have been carried out. Study 1, with Indian social media users, is a two-factor between-subjects experimental design that investigated the effect of message polarity (positive versus negative) and message type (news versus rumour) on the dissemination and verification behaviour of COVID-19-related messages. The study also investigated the mediation of perceived message importance and health anxiety. Study 2 is a replica study conducted with US users.

Findings

The study finding revealed significantly higher message sharing for news than rumour. Further, for the Indian users, message with positive polarity led to higher message sharing and message with negative polarity led to higher verification behaviour. On the contrary, for the US users, message with negative polarity led to higher message sharing and message with positive polarity led to higher verification behaviour. Finally, the study revealed message importance mediates the relationship of message type and message sharing behaviour for Indian and US users; however, health anxiety mediation was significant only for Indian users.

Practical implications

The findings offer important implications related to information regulation during a health crisis. Unverified information sharing is harmful during a pandemic. The study sheds light on this behaviour such that stakeholders get insights and better manage the information being disseminated.

Originality/value

The study investigates the behaviour of sharing and verification of social media messages between users containing health information (news and rumour) related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-07-2020-0282

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 大流行期间社交媒体上的消息共享和验证行为：以印度和美国为背景的研究

目的

技术使获取信息变得容易。在持续的 COVID-19 大流行期间，通过社交媒体轻松访问和传输信息导致了歧义、错误信息和不确定性。本研究在社交媒体的背景下研究了上述与 COVID-19 相关的信息共享和验证行为。

设计/方法/方法

已经进行了两项研究。研究 1 针对印度社交媒体用户，是一项双因素受试者间实验设计，调查了消息极性（正面与负面）和消息类型（新闻与谣言）对 COVID-19 的传播和验证行为的影响-相关消息。该研究还调查了感知信息重要性和健康焦虑的中介作用。研究 2 是一项针对美国用户的复制研究。

发现

研究结果显示，与谣言相比，新闻的信息共享要高得多。此外，对于印度用户而言，具有正极性的消息会导致更高的消息共享，而具有负极性的消息会导致更高的验证行为。相反，对于美国用户而言，带有负极性的消息导致更高的消息共享，带有正极性的消息导致更高的验证行为。最后，研究表明消息重要性在印度和美国用户的消息类型和消息共享行为之间起中介作用；然而，健康焦虑调解仅对印度用户有意义。

实际影响

这些发现提供了与健康危机期间的信息监管相关的重要意义。在大流行期间，未经验证的信息共享是有害的。该研究揭示了这种行为，以便利益相关者获得洞察力并更好地管理正在传播的信息。

原创性/价值

该研究调查了用户之间共享和验证社交媒体消息的行为，这些消息包含与正在进行的 COVID-19 大流行相关的健康信息（新闻和谣言）。

同行评审

本文的同行评审历史可在以下网址获得：https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-07-2020-0282