The bright side of social media information overload for anti-COVID-19 behaviors: a stimulus-organism-response framework

Social media has an important impact on social management by communicating information that influences individual behavior; however, too much social media information can cause user information overload. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic context provides an opportunity to analyze the impact of social media information overload on individuals' prosocial behaviors in emergency events. In this study, the impact of social media information overload on people's anti-COVID-19 behaviors, that is, behaviors that limit the transmission of COVID-19, was investigated by linking norm activation theory and information overload theory. Data were collected from 242 Chinese participants, and structural equation modeling was used for data analysis. The results showed that social media information overload positively influenced the awareness of consequences and the ascription of responsibility in anti-COVID-19 behaviors and that ascription of responsibility and awareness of consequences could activate people's personal norms and eventually motivate people to engage in prosocial behaviors for epidemic prevention. These findings could extend the information overload concept to a public health emergency context and yield useful insights for world pandemic control.