Mechanics of Rumor Mills and Epistemic Motivational Processes of Food-related Rumor Spread: Interplay between Attitude and Issue Motivation

ABSTRACT

This study tested the manner in which attitude toward an object of rumor affects people’s epistemic motivation to solve a problem and to share a rumor, specifically on social media, using two rumors regarding food safety issues including McDonald’s and genetically modified food. An online survey administered to 184 undergraduate students who use Twitter showed that negative attitudes increased the likelihood of rumor sharing, mediated by issue-related epistemic motivation. However, positive attitudes showed no effects on issue-related motivation and the likelihood of rumor sharing. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. We analyzed our data after removing the subjects who held ambivalent attitudes. We calculated the ambivalence scores by using the following formula: [(P + N)/2] – |P – N|, where P is the positive attitude score and N the negative attitude score (Thompson, Zanna, & Griffin, 1995). The score ranged from −1.0 to 5.0, where higher scores reflected greater ambivalence. After excluding the upper 25th percentile for the ambivalence score, we tested the proposed mediation models by using the Hayes’ PROCESS macro (Model 4). Overall, the results were similar to the ones we obtained from the data, including those with ambivalent attitudes. The results are available upon request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Yonsei University Research Grant of 2020 (#2020-22-0303).