What makes people re-share information on social media?
Astudy was conducted with an aim to uncover how the perception of the three dimensions of information quality — reliability, relevance, and enjoyment — could influence users’ intention to re-share the content they see on social network sites. The research was carried out by Dr Mehrdad Koohikamali, assistant professor in the School of Business at the University of Redlands, and Dr Anna Sidorova, associate professor of information technology and decision sciences at the University of North Texas.
“During extreme events such as shootings and natural disasters, most users do not have direct access to real information,” Koohikamaili said. “Because people want to react and fill in the blanks, they tend to spread information rapidly no matter whether or not the news is true or false and the source is trustworthy or not. Results of this irresponsible and sporadic behaviour can go beyond the online context and have several negative impacts on the society.”
Research findings indicate most social media users do not invest time in analysing the information content and source before re-sharing it, Koohikamali said. “The enjoyment dimension of information quality, however, is a significant predictor of re-sharing. We also found people who have higher risktaking propensities tend to re-share information more frequently due to some personal motives such as online reputation.”