Understanding the Motivations Behind Knowingly Spreading Rumors on Social Media Using Q Methodology | SpringerLink
Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

Understanding the Motivations Behind Knowingly Spreading Rumors on Social Media Using Q Methodology

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Wisdom, Well-Being, Win-Win (iConference 2024)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 14597))

Included in the following conference series:

  • 643 Accesses

Abstract

“Knowingly spreading rumors” has become an increasingly prevalent and seriously damaging phenomenon, yet existing research failed to provide enough theoretical explanations and empirical investigations of this issue. To bridge this research gap, this study utilizes the Q-methodology, which combines qualitative and quantitative approaches, to comprehensively explore the underlying core motivations and individual differences among social media users who knowingly spread rumors. By collecting, screening, and validating statements that encompass various reasons for knowingly spreading rumors on social media, we constructed a Q-set consisting of 44 statements. Subsequently, we invited 275 P-samples (in Q-methodology research, “P-samples” refer to the participants) to perform Q-sorting. Through factor analysis, we identified four types of motivations for knowingly spreading rumors on social media: Personal Involvement Type, Social Status Seeking Type, Entertainment Value Enhancement Type, and Uncertainty Reduction Type. Furthermore, our exploration delved into the unique relationships between these motivation types and demographic variables. The findings of this study not only broaden the boundaries of research within the realm of rumor spreading but also inspire further scholarly investigations into this under-examined behavior. This study also offers practical guidance for social media platforms, debunking organizations, and educational institutions, empowering them to develop effective strategies for preventing and intervening in the knowingly spread of rumors.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
¥17,985 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
JPY 3498
Price includes VAT (Japan)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
JPY 16015
Price includes VAT (Japan)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
JPY 10581
Price includes VAT (Japan)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Zubiaga, A., Liakata, M., Procter, R., Wong Sak Hoi, G., Tolmie, P.: Analysing how people orient to and spread rumors in social media by looking at conversational threads. PloS One 11(3), e0150989 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Wang, A.W., Lan, J.Y., Wang, M.H., Yu, C.: The evolution of rumors on a closed social networking platform during COVID-19: algorithm development and content study. JMIR Med. Inform. 9(11), e30467 (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Kumar, A., Nayar, K.R.: COVID 19 and its mental health consequences. J. Ment. Health 30(1), 1–2 (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Grafstein, A.: A discipline-based approach to information literacy. J. Acad. Librariansh. 28(4), 197–204 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Igbinovia, M.O., Okuonghae, O., Adebayo, J.O.: Information literacy competence in curtailing fake news about the COVID-19 pandemic among undergraduates in Nigeria. Ref. Serv. Rev. 49(1), 3–18 (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Barthel, M., Mitchell, A., Holcomb, J.: Many Americans believe fake news is sowing confusion (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Aditya, S., Darke, P.R.: Role of entertainment, social goals, and accuracy concerns in knowingly spreading questionable brand rumors. J. Assoc. Consum. Res. 5(2), 220–237 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Buchanan, T.: Why do people spread false information online? The effects of message and viewer characteristics on self-reported likelihood of sharing social media disinformation. PLoS ONE 15(10), e0239666 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Tasnim, S., Hossain, M.M., Mazumder, H.: Impact of rumors and misinformation on COVID-19 in social media. J. Prev. Med. Public Health 53(3), 171–174 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Zhang, C., Lin, Z., Jin, S.: What else besides war: deliberate metaphors framing COVID-19 in Chinese online newspaper editorials. Metaphor. Symb. 37(2), 114–126 (2022)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Apuke, O.D., Omar, B.: User motivation in fake news sharing during the COVID-19 pandemic: an application of the uses and gratification theory. Online Inf. Rev. 45(1), 220–239 (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Luo, P., Wang, C., Guo, F., Luo, L.: Factors affecting individual online rumor sharing behavior in the COVID-19 pandemic. Comput. Hum. Behav. 125, 106968 (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Meel, P., Vishwakarma, D.K.: Fake news, rumor, information pollution in social media and web: a contemporary survey of state-of-the-arts, challenges and opportunities. Expert Syst. Appl. 153, 112986 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Walsh, J.P.: Social media and moral panics: assessing the effects of technological change on societal reaction. Int. J. Cult. Stud. 23(6), 840–859 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Ferrara, E., Chang, H., Chen, E., Muric, G., Patel, J.: Characterizing social media manipulation in the 2020 US presidential election. First Monday (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Zhang, L., Chen, K., Jiang, H., Zhao, J.: How the health rumor misleads people’s perception in a public health emergency: lessons from a purchase craze during the COVID-19 outbreak in China. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 17(19), 7213 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Lee, H., Kim, J., Kim, J.N.: Mechanics of rumor mills and epistemic motivational processes of food-related rumor spread: Interplay between attitude and issue motivation. Health Commun. 36(6), 722–730 (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Chen, X., Wang, N.: Rumor spreading model considering rumor credibility, correlation and crowd classification based on personality. Sci. Rep. 10(1), 5887 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Shen, Y.C., Lee, C.T., Pan, L.Y., Lee, C.Y.: Why people spread rumors on social media: developing and validating a multi-attribute model of online rumor dissemination. Online Inf. Rev. 45(7), 1227–1246 (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Hosni, A.I.E., Li, K., Ahmad, S.: Analysis of the impact of online social networks addiction on the propagation of rumors. Physica A 542, 123456 (2020)

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  21. Oh, H.J., Lee, H.: When do people verify and share health rumors on social media? The effects of message importance, health anxiety, and health literacy. J. Health Commun. 24(11), 837–847 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Kwon, K.H., Rao, H.R.: Cyber-rumor sharing under a homeland security threat in the context of government Internet surveillance: the case of South-North Korea conflict. Gov. Inf. Q. 34(2), 307–316 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Chua, A.Y., Banerjee, S.: Intentions to trust and share online health rumors: an experiment with medical professionals. Comput. Hum. Behav. 87, 1–9 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Sudhir, S., Unnithan, A.B.: Role of affect in marketplace rumor propagation. Mark. Intell. Plan. 37(6), 631–644 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Liu, J., Liu, X., Lai, K.H., Zhang, X., Ma, X.: Exploring rumor behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic through an information processing perspective: the moderating role of critical thinking. Comput. Hum. Behav. 147, 107842 (2023)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Guo, F., Zhou, A., Zhang, X., Xu, X., Liu, X.: Fighting rumors to fight COVID-19: investigating rumor belief and sharing on social media during the pandemic. Comput. Hum. Behav. 139, 107521 (2023)

    Google Scholar 

  27. He, L., Yang, H., Xiong, X., Lai, K.: Online rumor transmission among younger and older adults. SAGE Open 9(3), 2158244019876273 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Chua, A.Y., Banerjee, S.: To share or not to share: the role of epistemic belief in online health rumors. Int. J. Med. Informatics 108, 36–41 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Kim, J.W.: Rumor has it: the effects of virality metrics on rumor believability and transmission on Twitter. New Media Soc. 20(12), 4807–4825 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Lin, T.C., Huang, S.L., Liao, W.X.: Examining the antecedents of everyday rumor retransmission. Inf. Technol. People 35(4), 1326–1345 (2022)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Kim, J.Y.: A study of social media users’ perceptional typologies and relationships to self-identity and personality. Internet Res. 28(3), 767–784 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Nunnally, J.C.: Psychometric Theory, 2nd edn. McGraw Hill, New York (1978)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Brown, S.: Political Subjectivity: Applications of Q Methodology in Political Science. Yale University Press, New Haven (1980)

    Google Scholar 

  34. DiFonzo, N., Bordia, P.: Rumor, gossip and urban legends. Diogenes 54(1), 19–35 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  35. Alkhodair, S.A., Ding, S.H., Fung, B.C., Liu, J.: Detecting breaking news rumors of emerging topics in social media. Inf. Process. Manage. 57(2), 102018 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  36. Dhir, A., Yossatorn, Y., Kaur, P., Chen, S.: Online social media fatigue and psychological wellbeing—a study of compulsive use, fear of missing out, fatigue, anxiety and depression. Int. J. Inf. Manage. 40, 141–152 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  37. Ozturk, P., Li, H., Sakamoto, Y.: Combating rumor spread on social media: the effectiveness of refutation and warning. In: 2015 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, pp. 2406–2414. IEEE (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  38. Stieglitz, S., Dang-Xuan, L.: Emotions and information diffusion in social media—sentiment of microblogs and sharing behavior. J. Manag. Inf. Syst. 29(4), 217–248 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  39. DePaulo, B.M., Kashy, D.A.: Everyday lies in close and casual relationships. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 74(1), 63 (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  40. Hickman, T., Ward, J.: The dark side of brand community: inter-group stereotyping, trash talk, and schadenfreude. ACR North American Advances (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  41. Zheng, Y., Lu, X., Ren, W.: Tracking the evolution of Chinese learners’ multilingual motivation through a longitudinal Q methodology. Mod. Lang. J. 104(4), 781–803 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  42. Brown, S.R., Durning, D.W., Selden, S.: Q Methodology. In: Miller, G.J., Whicker, M.L. (eds.) Handbook of Research Methods in Public Administration, pp. 599–637. Marcel Dekker, New York (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  43. Brown, S.R.: A primer on Q methodology. Operant Subjectivity 16, 91–138 (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  44. Stephenson, W.: Protoconcursus: the concourse theory of communication: I. Operant Subjectivity 9(2), 37–58 (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  45. Shinebourne, P.: Using Q method in qualitative research. Int. J. Qual. Methods 8(1), 93–97 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  46. Rajé, F.: Using Q methodology to develop more perceptive insights on transport and social inclusion. Transp. Policy 14(6), 467–477 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  47. Kline, P.: An Easy Guide to Factor Analysis. Routledge (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  48. Webler, T., Danielson, S., Tuler, S.: Using Q Method to reveal social perspectives in environmental research. Greenfield, MA: Soc. Environ. Res. Inst. 54, 1–45 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  49. Selvanathan, H.P., Uluğ, Ö.M., Burrows, B.: What should allies do? Identifying activist perspectives on the role of white allies in the struggle for racial justice in the United States. Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 53(1), 43–60 (2023)

    Google Scholar 

  50. VanScoy, A.: Using Q methodology to understand conflicting conceptualizations of reference and information service. Libr. Inf. Sci. Res. 43(3), 101107 (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  51. Akhtar-Danesh, N., Baumann, A., Cordingley, L.: Q-methodology in nursing research: a promising method for the study of subjectivity. West. J. Nurs. Res. 30(6), 759–773 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  52. Lee, C.S., Ma, L.: News sharing in social media: the effect of gratifications and prior experience. Comput. Hum. Behav. 28(2), 331–339 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  53. Park, N., Kee, K.F., Valenzuela, S.: Being immersed in social networking environment: Facebook groups, uses and gratifications, and social outcomes. Cyberpsychol. Behav. 12(6), 729–733 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  54. Ashford, S.J., Black, J.S.: Proactivity during organizational entry: the role of desire for control. J. Appl. Psychol. 81(2), 199 (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  55. Bordia, P., DiFonzo, N.: Psychological motivations in rumor spread. In: Rumor Mills, pp. 87–102. Routledge (2017)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The work described in this paper was partially supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 72274144, 72311540158), and the Humanities and Social Sciences Foundation of the Ministry of Education, China (Project No. 22YJA870013).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Xiao-Liang Shen & Qianwen Qian

  2. Economics and Management School, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    You Wu

Authors
  1. Xiao-Liang Shen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Qianwen Qian
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. You Wu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiao-Liang Shen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. iSchool organization, Berlin, Germany

    Isaac Sserwanga

  2. University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan

    Hideo Joho

  3. Jilin University, Changchun, China

    Jie Ma

  4. Stockholm University, Kista, Sweden

    Preben Hansen

  5. Wuhan University, Wuhan, China

    Dan Wu

  6. University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan

    Masanori Koizumi

  7. University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Anne J. Gilliland

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Shen, XL., Qian, Q., Wu, Y. (2024). Understanding the Motivations Behind Knowingly Spreading Rumors on Social Media Using Q Methodology. In: Sserwanga, I., et al. Wisdom, Well-Being, Win-Win. iConference 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14597. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-57860-1_12

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-57860-1_12

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-57859-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-57860-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation