Intention to Trust and Share Health-Related Online Rumors: Studying the Role of Risk Propensity

As the Internet has become a popular avenue for users to seek health-related information, the prevalence of online rumors represents a growing concern. If users trust and share bogus health information on the Internet, repurcussions could be serious. Therefore, this paper examines how users' intention to trust and share rumors vary as a function of three factors: length, sentiment of rumors, and presence of pictures. The individual difference of risk propensity is also taken into account. Data were collected from 110 participants using a 2 (length of rumors: short or long) x 2 (rumor sentiments: positive or negative) x 2 (presence of pictures: present or absent) within-participants web-based experiment. Results indicate that long rumors as well as those without pictures were likely to be trusted and shared regardless of individuals' risk propensity. However, the relationship between rumor sentiment and intention was not always consistent between risk-averse and risk-seeking individuals. Implications of the results for both theory and practice are highlighted.