Luo Peng, Wang Chenxiao, Guo Feng, Luo Li
School of Business, Sichuan University, No.24 South Section 1, Yihuan Road, Chengdu, China.
School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, 92 West Dazhi Street, Nan Gang District, Harbin, 150001, China.
Comput Human Behav. 2021 Dec;125:106968. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2021.106968. Epub 2021 Jul 27.
With the outbreak of COVID-19, online sharing of rumors about the disease is of growing concern worldwide. Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework, this study aims to explore the impacts of peer condition and peer communication on fear of COVID-19, and the impact of fear of COVID-19 on online rumor sharing behavior, by considering the contingency effect of health self-efficacy. Data from 1167 respondents to an online survey in China were adopted to test our research model. The results indicate that peer communication and peer condition induce fear of COVID-19, and fear of COVID-19 results in online rumor sharing. Fear of COVID-19 mediates the effects of peer communication and peer condition on online rumor sharing. Health self-efficacy alleviates the positive effect of peer communication on fear of COVID-19, and the positive effect of fear of COVID-19 on online rumor sharing. This study advances the literature on online rumor sharing and S-O-R, and provides practical implications to social media users and governments.
随着新冠疫情的爆发，关于该疾病的谣言在网上的传播日益引起全球关注。本研究基于刺激—机体—反应（S-O-R）框架，旨在探讨同伴条件和同伴交流对新冠恐惧的影响，以及新冠恐惧对网络谣言传播行为的影响，并考虑健康自我效能的权变效应。采用来自中国一项在线调查的1167名受访者的数据来检验我们的研究模型。结果表明，同伴交流和同伴条件会引发对新冠的恐惧，而对新冠的恐惧会导致网络谣言传播。对新冠的恐惧在同伴交流和同伴条件对网络谣言传播的影响中起中介作用。健康自我效能减轻了同伴交流对新冠恐惧的正向影响，以及对新冠的恐惧对网络谣言传播的正向影响。本研究推动了关于网络谣言传播和S-O-R的文献发展，并为社交媒体用户和政府提供了实际启示。
