Combat Fake News Sharing on Social Media: A Rational Choice and Social Media Literacy Perspective

Sharing fake news on social media is regarded as one of the vital threats to national democracy, social stability, and even the mental health of individuals.In contrast, insufficient research focuses on the motives behind such sharing.In this study, we adopted a quantitative approach to examine how possessed social media literacy and rational choice factors affect Chinese social media users' fake news sharing behaviors, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.We used an online survey to collect data from 416 Chinese WeChat users.We found that fake news sharing behavior was predicted by specific rational choice factors, which were status seeking, trust in social media, and fear of missing out.Meanwhile, we find that relationships between the above factors and fake news sharing behavior can be effectively moderated by an individual's social media literacy.This study reinforces the role of social media literacy in combating the spread of fake news.It expands the existing literature on fake news sharing by highlighting the importance of user-based strategies in addressing this global issue.Future research should consider the impact of characteristics of different sample groups on fake news sharing behavior.