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2025 , Vol. 69 >Issue 7: 67 - 79

DOI: https://doi.org/10.13266/j.issn.0252-3116.2025.07.006

RESEARCH PAPERS

Research on Social Media Users’ Correcting Health Misinformation Intention

  • Zhang Song ,
  • Chen Shudan ,
  • Chen Hao ,
  • Lü Tu
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  • School of Business, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071
Zhang Song,professor,PhD,postdoc,doctoral supervisor;Chen Shudan,master candidate;Chen Hao,professor,PhD,doctoral supervisor,corresponding author,E-mail:ch9569@qdu.edu.cn;Lü Tu,professor,PhD,master supervisor.

Received date: 2024-06-05

  Revised date: 2024-08-09

  Online published: 2025-03-24

Supported by

This work is supported by the National Social Science Fund of China project titled “Research on the Path and Countermeasures of Enhancing the Effectiveness of Digital Government Governance for Public Demand” (Grant No. 22CGL037).

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Abstract

[Purpose/Significance] The rampant spread of false, inaccurate, or incomplete health information on social media can be detrimental to public health. As information recipients, the public promptly identifies and corrects such misinformation, which not only protects their well-being but also contributes to the construction of a healthy health information ecology. [Method/Process] Based on the situational theory of problem solving, this study integrated protection motivation theory and self-construal theory to develop a research model that explored the influence mechanisms of social media users’ intention to correct health misinformation from two aspects: self-correction and correcting others. By means of quasi-experimental method, four common health misinformation scenarios were meticulously designed for sports, first aid, disease and health care. A total of 677 online and offline questionnaires were collected on users’ cognition, appraisal and correction intention on health misinformation. The differences in correction intention among different scenarios and age groups were compared using one-way ANOVA. [Result/Conclusion] The results show that involvement recognition has significant positive effects on threat appraisal, situational motivation and coping appraisal, while problem cognition has significant positive effects on threat appraisal and situation motivation. Coping appraisal plays a mediating role between involvement recognition, constraint recognition, and situational motivation. Independent self-construal plays a positive role in moderating the relationship between situational motivation and self-correcting intention, while dependent self-construal plays a positive role in regulating the relationship between situational motivation and the intention to correct others. The results reveal the mechanism of correcting health misinformation of ordinary users, and provide suggestions for social media platforms to manage health misinformation according to different users’ psychological characteristics.

Key words： health misinformation; self-correction; correcting others; situational motivation; threat appraisal; coping appraisal; self-construal

Cite this article

Zhang Song , Chen Shudan , Chen Hao , Lü Tu . Research on Social Media Users’ Correcting Health Misinformation Intention[J]. Library and Information Service, 2025 , 69(7) : 67 -79 . DOI: 10.13266/j.issn.0252-3116.2025.07.006

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