Fake or Fact News? Investigating Users’ Online Fake News Sharing Behavior: The Moderating Role of Social Networking Sites (SNS) Dependency

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to test and validate a modified stimulus organism response (SOR) theory with a bi-dimensional attitude toward fake news sharing. This study examines the effect of various gratifications, i.e., hedonic, social, and utilitarian, with bi-dimensional attitudes and intentions toward sharing fake news. The moderating effect of social networking sites (SNS) dependency is also investigated to examine the attitude-intention gap. Data were collected from a sample of 327 social media users and further analyzed using PLS-SEM. The modified SOR theory described significant variance in fake news sharing intentions. Findings reveal that cognitive attitude is a strong predictor of sharing fake intentions than affective attitude. All gratifications factors except hedonic gratification have significant positive association with attitude which in turn influence the users’ toward fake news sharing. Moreover, the findings also proved the moderating effect of SNS dependency. This study explains remarkable insights for researchers, practitioners, social media users, and social media platform providers.

Keywords:

• Fake news
• gratification
• stimulus
• organism and response (SOR) theory
• attitude
• fake news sharing
• intention

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ahmad S. Ajina

Ahmed S. Ajina is an associate professor in Marketing, College of Business Administration, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia. He leads the marketing department and dean of college of business administration at Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University. His research fields include consumer behaviour, services marketing and E-Marketing.

Hafiz Muhammad Usama Javed

Hafiz Muhammad Usama Javed is a research assistant at COMSATS University Islamabad, Sahiwal Campus, and pursuing PhD in Marketing from Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. His area of research includes green marketing, sustainable consumption, social media marketing, retail management, and consumer behavior.

Saqib Ali

Saqib Ali is an assistant professor of Marketing at the Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad Sahiwal Campus. He holds PhD from University Utara Malaysia in Marketing. His research interests lie primarily in Sustainable Consumption, Green Marketing, Political Marketing, Retailing, Consumer Behavior, Brand Management, and Social Media Marketing.

Ahmad M. A. Zamil

Ahmad M. A. Zamil is a professor in Marketing, College of Business Administration, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia. He has published a number of papers in national and international journals and several books on various topics in marketing. His research fields include Marketing management, E-Marketing, E-Retailer, and Consumer Behavior.