Why Do I Share When I Know It Probably Isn’t True? An Investigation of Motivations Underlying Cyber Rumor Sharing

The rise of online social networks (OSNs) has dramatically increased the rate at which cyber rumors and large-scale information cascades diffuse across the world, which has led cyber rumors to become a global social phenomenon. While earlier studies primarily emphasized the role of plausibility in driving rumor dissemination, an increasing number of studies have found that falsity travels much faster, deeper, and more broadly than truth on OSNs, which has led to the plausibility paradox. Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework, this study explores how rumor novelty and plausibility work differentially to jointly influence individuals’ intentions to share cyber rumors. Using a controlled, randomized experiment (n = 356), we found that utilitarian and hedonic motivations mediate rumor stimuli and rumor-sharing intentions. In addition, we found that, while plausibility impacts sharing intentions primarily through utilitarian motivations, novelty is a more salient factor that exerts a stronger effect on utilitarian and hedonic motivations. By illuminating the mechanisms underlying the plausibility paradox, our study extends understanding of online users’ cyber rumor-sharing intentions and holds significant theoretical and practical implications.