COVID-19 ushered in almost unprecedented socioeconomic and political challenges. A typical social reaction during such emergencies is rumormongering, which has intensified since the advent of social media. This study explored factors affecting users’ willingness to spread pandemic-related rumors in Wuhan, China and Israel. We tested a multi-variant model of factors affecting the forwarding of COVID-19 rumors. In an online survey conducted in April–May 2020, users of each country's leading social media platform (WeChat and WhatsApp, respectively) reported on patterns of exposure to and spread of COVID-19 rumors, as well as on their motives for doing so. Despite major differences between the two societies, interesting similarities were found: in both cases, individual drives, shaped by personal needs and degree of negative feelings, were the leading factors behind rumormongering. Exposure to additional sources of information regarding the rumors was also a significant predictor, but only in the Chinese case.
AllportGWPostmanL (1947) The Psychology of Rumor. New York: Holt
2.
ArielYElishar-MalkaV (2019) Learning in the smartphone era: Viewpoints and perceptions on both sides of the lectern. Education and Information Technologies24(4): 2329–2340.
3.
BaeSY (2017) The social mediation of political rumors: Examining the dynamics in social media and belief in political rumors. Journalism21(10): 1522–1538.
4.
BergerJMilkman KL (2012) What makes online content viral?Journal of Marketing Research49(2): 192–205.
5.
BoyleMPSchmierbachMArmstrongCL, et al. (2004) Information seeking and emotional reactions to the September 11 terrorist attacks. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly81(1): 155–167.
6.
BråtenIStrømsøHI (2006) Epistemological beliefs, interest, and gender as predictors of internet-based learning activities. Computers in Human Behavior22(6): 1027–1042.
7.
BucknerHT (1965) A theory of rumor transmission. Public Opinion Quarterly29(1): 54–70.
8.
CentolaD (2010) The spread of behavior in an online social network experiment. Science329(5996): 1194–1197.
9.
ChenLD (2011) Rumors about salt—Repetition of similar rumors. Youth Journalist, 13: 9–10.
10.
ChenYLiangCLCaiDQ (2018) Understanding WeChat users’ behavior of sharing social crisis information. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction34(4): 356–366.
11.
ChuaABanerjeeS (2017) To share or not to share: The role of epistemic belief in online health rumors. International Journal of Medical Informatics108: 36–41.
12.
ChuaABanerjeeS (2018) Intentions to trust and share online health rumors: An experiment with medical professionals. Computers in Human Behavior87: –9.
13.
ChuaAYKAricatRGohD (2017) Message content in the life of rumors: Comparing three rumor types. 2017 Twelfth International Conference on Digital Information Management (ICDIM), (pp. 263–268). doi: 10.1109/ICDIM.2017.8244643.
14.
DaleyDJKendallDG (1964) Epidemics and rumours. Nature204(4963): 1118–1118.
15.
D'UrsoJ (2020) How the coronavirus pandemic is changing social media. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/risj-review/how-coronavirus-pandemic-changing-social-media.
16.
Elishar-MalkaVArielYAvidarR (2019) A story of love and hate: Smartphones in students’ lives. In: SchulzJ, et al. (eds) Mediated Millennials (Studies in Media and Communications, Vol. 19). Bingley, UK: Emerald, 33–50. https://doi.org/10.1108/s2050-206020190000019003
17.
FuHALiuM (2013) Internet rumors reflect a dilemma of public opinion: A case study of spread of H7N9 bird flu rumors. Chuanbo Yu Banquan5: 146–148.
18.
GarrettRK (2011) Troubling consequences of online political rumoring. Human Communication Research37(2): 255–274.
19.
GuoXA (2014) Spread and management of internet rumors. Theoretical Exploration6: 53–57.
20.
GuoXAXuePY (2015) Will we put more trust in rumors spread in WeChat moments—On WeChat rumors’ three dissemination features. E-Government2: 33–38.
21.
HarsinJ (2018) Post-truth and Critical Communication Studies. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
22.
HosniAIELiK (2020) Minimizing the influence of rumors during breaking news events in online social networks. Knowledge-Based Systems193: 105452.
23.
HuoLAHuangPQ (2011) The study of rumor diffusion in emergencies—A case of earthquake in Japan. Journal of Intelligence30(10): 77–85.
24.
HuYQ (2011) Psychological motivations in rumor spread: A comparative analysis of SARS and Fukushima nuclear disaster. People’s Tribune, 10(1): 22–23.
25.
JangKBaekYM (2019) When information from public health officials is untrustworthy: The use of online news, interpersonal networks, and social media during the MERS outbreak in South Korea. Health Communication34(9): 991–998.
26.
KimCYangS (2017) Like, comment, and share on Facebook: How each behavior differs from the other. Public Relations Review43(2): 441–449
27.
KimJW (2018) Rumor has it: The effects of virality metrics on rumor believability and transmission on twitter. New Media and Society20(12): 4807–4825.
28.
KnappRH (1944) A psychology of rumor. Public Opinion Quarterly8(1): 22–37.
29.
Knobloch-WesterwickS (2015) The selective exposure self-and affect-management (SESAM) model: Applications in the realms of race, politics, and health. Communication Research42(7): 959–985.
30.
KwonKHBangCCEgnotoM, et al. (2016) Social media rumors as improvised public opinion: Semantic network analyses of twitter discourses during Korean saber rattling 2013. Asian Journal of Communication26(3): 201–222.
31.
LaiSQTangXM (2016) On the impact of emotional information on online rumor spread. Journal of Intelligence35(01): 116–121.
32.
LazarsfeldPFBerelsonBGaudetH (1944) The People’s Choice. New York: Duell, Sloan, and Pearce.
33.
LeeCSMaL (2012) News sharing in social media: The effect of gratifications and prior experience. Computers in Human Behavior28(2): 331–339.
34.
LewandowskiTA (2017) Responsibility to protect. Balancing national interests and international obligations through multilateralism. International Comparative Jurisprudence3(1): 93–103.
35.
LiJL (2003) An analysis of spread of Internet rumors arising out of emergencies—A case study of SARS. Journal of Xinzhou Teachers College, 19(6): 92–94.
36.
LiXY (2018) Types and features of WeChat rumor spread—based on an analysis of 206 rumors selected from WeChat security center. News World2: 52–55.
37.
LiuR (2016) On response-inviting structure, audience's expectation horizon of WeChat rumor meta-texts and strategies of rumor refuting. Journal of Intelligence35(12): 34–40.
38.
MalkaVArielYAvidarR (2015) Fighting, worrying and sharing: “operation protective edge” as the first WhatsApp war. Media, War, and Conflict8(3): 329–344.
39.
MasonLAriasiNBoldrinA (2011) Epistemic beliefs in action: Spontaneous reflections about knowledge and knowing during online information searching and their influence on learning. Learning and Instruction21(1): 137–151.
40.
McGonagleT (2017) “Fake news” false fears or real concerns?Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights35(4): 203–209.
41.
MessingSWestwoodSJ (2014) Selective exposure in the age of social media: Endorsements trump partisan source affiliation when selecting news online. Communication Research41(8): 1042–1063.
42.
MutzDCYoungL (2011) Communication and public opinion: Plus Ça change?Public Opinion Quarterly75(5): 1018–1044.
43.
NaKGarretteRKSlaterMD (2018) Rumor acceptance during public health crises: Testing the emotional congruence hypothesis. Journal of Health Communication23(8): 791–799.
44.
NekoveeMMorenoYBianconiG, et al. (2007) Theory of rumor spreading in complex social networks. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications374(1): 457–470.
45.
NingXWWangH (2018) Spread features, motives, and coping strategies of WeChat rumors—taking 30 rumors during 2015 and 2017 as samples. Southeast Communication6: 103–106.
46.
NsoesieEOOladejiO (2020) Identifying patterns to prevent the spread of misinformation during epidemics. The Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review1: 6.
47.
ParkNKeeKFValenzuelaS (2009) Being immersed in social networking environment: Facebook groups, uses and gratifications, and social outcomes. Cyberpsychology Behavior12(6): 729–733.
48.
RiedenauerM (2016) Aristotle: Sources, interpretations, and discussions. LABYRINTH18(2): 7–26.
49.
RobertsHSeymourBFishSA, et al. (2017) Digital health communication and global public influence: A study of the ebola epidemic. Journal of Health Communication22: 51–58.
50.
SeahSWeimannG (2020) What influences the willingness of Chinese WeChat users to forward food-safety rumors?International Journal of Communication14: 2186–2207.
51.
ShibutaniT (1966) Improvised News: A Sociological Study of Rumor. London: Ardent Media.
52.
SimonTGoldbergALeykinD, et al. (2016) Kidnapping WhatsApp: Rumors during the search and rescue operation of three kidnapped youth. Computers in Human Behavior64: 183–190.
53.
SteppatDCastroHLEsserF (2021) Selective exposure in different political information environments – How media fragmentation and polarization shape congruent news use. European Journal of Communication 1-21.
54.
SternW (1902) Zur psychologie der aussage. Experimentelle untersuchungen ber erinnerungstreue. Zeitschrift fr die gesamte StrafechtswissenschaftXXII(2/3): 315–370.
55.
SudburyA (1985) The proportion of the population never hearing a rumour. Journal of Applied Probability22(2): 443–446.
56.
SuhBHongLPirolliP, et al. (2010) Want to be retweeted? Large scale analytics on factors impacting retweet in twitter network. In: PentlandA (eds) Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE International Conference on Social Computing. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society, 177–184.
57.
SunHLiLN (2012) An exploration of features of frequently forwarded weibo posts and forwarding motives—based on an analysis of daily forwarding frequency ranking list on sina weibo. Modern Communication (Journal of Communication University of China34(06): 137–138.
58.
SuttonJSpiroESJohnsonB, et al. (2014) Warning tweets: Serial transmission of messages during the warning phase of a disaster event. Information. Communication & Society17(6): 765–787.
59.
TangXQLiXJ (2013) An analysis of psychological factors in rumor spread during major emergencies. Theory and Reform5: 152–154.
60.
TaoP (2012) Causes and management of internet rumors from a perspective of internet culture. Leadership Science20: 59–60.
61.
TongCQ (2014) Research on the influence mechanism of retweeting behavior on social network. Master’s Thesis. Zhejiang Gongshang University, Zhejiang, China.
62.
ViewegSHughesALStarbirdK, et al. (2010) Microblogging during two natural hazards events: What twitter may contribute to situational awareness. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems: 1079–1088. https://doi.org/10.1145/1753326.1753486
63.
WeimannG (1983) The not-so-small world: Ethnicity and acquaintance networks in Israel. Social Networks5(3): 289–302.
64.
Weimann-SaksDArielYElishar-MalkaV (2019) Social second screen: WhatsApp and watching the world cup. Communication & Sport8(1): 123–141.
65.
YiJ (2017) Study on the spread and control of epidemic-situation Internet rumors—“H7N9 influenza epidemic” and “SB250 infectious virus” as samples. Master's Thesis, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Hubei, China.
66.
ZanetteDH (2002). Dynamics of rumor propagation on small-world networks. Physical Review E, 65(4), no. 041908.
67.
ZhangZAShuKR (2016) Spread mechanism of WeChat rumors and factors that influence WeChat rumor spread—From perspectives of netizens, media and society. News and Writing3: 63–67.
68.
ZhouAQ (2018) Research on factors that influence WeChat users’ willingness to forward food safety rumors. Master's thesis, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, China.
69.
ZhouXH (2003) The mis-transmission: A social psychological analysis of the prevalence of rumors and gossip about SARS. Sociological Research6: 43–54.
70.
ZouWTangL (2021) What do we believe in? Rumors and processing strategies during the COVID-19 outbreak in China. Public Understanding of Science30(2): 153–168.
