Linking social media overload to health misinformation dissemination: An investigation of the underlying mechanisms

Abstract

The prevalence of misinformation on social media during COVID-19 causes the emergence of infodemic. Despite the recognition that excessive social media use results in the dissemination of misinformation, a theoretical understanding of the relationship between social media overload and health misinformation dissemination is lacking. To fill the research gap, this study builds an integrated model to examine how social media overload affects individuals’ health misinformation dissemination by investigating the underlying mechanisms. A survey method was employed to collect the data and test the hypotheses. The results revealed that information overload, communication overload and social overload affect individuals’ health anxiety and exhaustion, which in turn, exert effects on their health misinformation dissemination. In theoretical terms, this study uncovers the mechanisms underlying the relationship between social media overload and health misinformation dissemination. In practical terms, this study provides insights on the management of social media usage.

Keywords

• Social media overload
• Health misinformation dissemination
• Health anxiety
• Exhaustion