How Do People Process Weight Loss Information? Different Information Management Behaviors After Risk Information Seeking and Processing

Obesity has become a major global health concern, threatening individuals' health and well-being. Therefore, exploring information behaviors related to weight loss is of great significance. To cope with obesity, individuals often engage in a novel communicative behavior called <i>information hoarding</i>, which is defined as the tendency to acquire and accumulate information from the Internet. The risk information seeking and processing (RISP) model provides a useful theoretical framework for understanding information management behaviors. In this study, we conducted a survey (<i>n</i> = 538) in China to extend the RISP model by incorporating information hoarding. The results suggested that informational subjective norms and information insufficiency were positively associated with information seeking, systematic processing, and information hoarding, while negatively associated with heuristic processing. Additionally, when individuals processed weight loss information systematically, they were more inclined to seek related information. In contrast, when processing information heuristically, they were less likely to both seek and hoard additional information. Furthermore, both information seeking and information hoarding showed a positive relationship with health behavior intentions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.