Information disorder behavior on social media : a moral intensity perspective
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Wei Xie (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Smith Kane
Abstract: Widespread information disorder on social media is quickly becoming a prominent issue. Unintentionally or intentionally shared misleading information profoundly impacts interpersonal relations and psychological well-being, radically steers civic engagements, and fundamentally charts nationwide or worldwide political configurations. Emerging and increasingly connected technologies are predictably propelling information disorder into a worse state. At present, research in a wide variety of disciplines has only begun to disentangle social media information disorder. Whenever information and behavior directly influence humans and societies, they possess ethical and moral significance. On social media, information-sharing is largely regulated by each individual’s implicit internal moral codes rather than explicit regulations or ethical standards. This highlights the essence of moral decision-making in each instance of sharing. As such, an overlooked moral intensity perspective is utilized to investigate information disorder on social media. This research argues that moral intensity evaluation of sharing affects information disorder behavior and that information disorder behavior is context-dependent. This research adopts a sequential mixed-research method, including a qualitative and a quantitative study to investigate information disorder behavior on social media. The qualitative study examines and interprets how the interactions between an individual’s moral intensity and information disorder influence the decision-making and intention of information-sharing. The quantitative study conceptualizes information disorder as a dark behavior. It tests a disinformation sharing model with selected antecedents discovered from the literature and the qualitative study, predicting the regulatory effect of moral intensity on information disorder. Our qualitative study suggests several mechanisms that underlie information disorder on social media. The perceived benefits, perceived urgency, explicit regulations in the to-be-shared information, and trust in social ties are the primary mechanisms. The qualitative study also indicates that information disorder intention is contingent on each sharing and the related context, specifically the moral intensity. The results of our quantitative study verify the significant path coefficients, direct and indirect, between (1) an individual’s moral philosophy of idealism and moral intensity, (2) IT mindfulness and moral intensity, (3) dark personalities and moral issue recognition, and (4) dark personalities and sharing intention. The model predicts the regulatory role of moral intensity in information disorder intention on social media. The model, however, also suggests that the selected antecedents are not theoretically strong enough to explain the variations in the moral intensity construct, pointing to the need for future research to add other antecedents into the predictive model. This research provides insights into information disorder on social media and suggests mechanisms to mitigate it. Therefore, the research enhances the current knowledge of information disorder on social media and contributes to moral and ethical research of online behaviors. Keywords: Information Disorder, Misinformation, Disinformation, Malinformation, Moral Intensity, Moral Decision-making, Moral Philosophy, Morality, Personality, Dark Personality, Mindfulness, IT mindfulness
Information disorder behavior on social media : a moral intensity perspective
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Created on 12/1/2021
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Dissertation
- Language: English
- Date: 2021
- Keywords
- Information Disorder, Misinformation, Disinformation, Malinformation, Moral Intensity, Moral Decision-making, Moral Philosophy, Morality, Personality, Dark Personality, Mindfulness, IT mindfulness
- Subjects
- Social media $x Moral and ethical aspects
- Disinformation $x Moral and ethical aspects
- Decision making $x Moral and ethical aspects