A Study Of Factors Influencing Social Media Users’ False Information Response Behavior Under Sudden Public Events

With the rapid development of Internet technology in China,social media platforms have gained rapid popularity.With the frequent occurrence of public emergencies around the world,the public’s behavioral habits in response to information have also undergone great changes.False information in the context of public emergencies spreads rapidly through social media,seriously undermining the credibility of media platforms,infringing on audiences’ right to know,disrupting social order,and even affecting national security and social stability.In this paper,we analyze the perception degree and response behaviors of social media users towards false information in public emergencies in order to grasp the influence paths and mechanisms of false information response behaviors of social media users in public emergencies.Based on the theory of coping behavior and the protective behavior decision model,this study constructs a model of factors influencing social media users’ false information coping behavior under public emergencies from three dimensions,including information user dimension,information dimension and information context dimension,and designs specific measurement scales.Based on the valid questionnaire data,SPSS23.0 and AMOS26.0 were used to analyze the data and validate the model,respectively.This study helps to discover the key influencing factors,so as to provide direction and support for social media users to choose false information response strategies,and then to guide social media users to respond rationally to false information in the context of public emergencies in a targeted manner.The study finds that the information context dimension has the greatest influence on social media users’ perception of false information coping behavior in the context of public emergencies;the information user dimension has the least influence on social media users’ perception of false information coping behavior;social media users’ risk perception has a highly significant positive influence on false information problem-focused coping behavior;social media users’ benefit perception has a highly significant positive influence on false information problem-focused coping behavior;and social media users’ risk perception has a highly significant positive influence on false information problem-focused coping behavior.The cost perception of social media users has a significant positive impact on both false information-focused coping behavior and emotion-focused coping behavior.Accordingly,this paper proposes countermeasures such as guiding users to choose more issue-focused coping behaviors;guiding users to think rationally in three aspects,including risk perception,benefit perception and cost perception;controlling the information situation by relevant departments;and strengthening the literacy education of social media users and media professionals.In order to provide effective help for the rational guidance of social media users’ false information response behavior in the context of sudden public events.