How Far Can Online Trust Go? Analysing False Information Sharing Behaviour on Social Media

Abstract

There are many ways that false information can be harmful, and there is no doubt that its spread is a serious problem with a significant impact on businesses, consumers, and society. Today, understanding the dynamics behind the sharing of false information on social media is paramount for many stakeholders. Thus, the present study investigates the relationship between peoples’ tendency to share false information and different predictors, on the one hand, and lack of time, on the other hand. Alternatively, we scrutinised the influences of the perceived source authority, expertise, credibility, as well as information quality on online trust. It employs structural equation modelling on 482 social media consumers. Surprisingly, they are adopting passive – but not active – corrective actions, and those who authenticate information before sharing are less prone to share false information due to lack of time. Moreover, instantaneous information sharing for creating awareness, and online trust also have an important influence on false information-sharing behaviour. However, the most important finding is by far that online trust is influenced only by perceived source authority, not by expertise, credibility, and information quality.