“In Flow”! Why Do Users Share Fake News about Environmentally Friendly Brands on Social Media?

Daniel-Rareș Obadă and Dan Cristian Dabija
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Daniel-Rareș Obadă: Department of Communication Sciences and Public Relations, Faculty of Philosophy and Socio-Political Sciences, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, 700506 Iași, Romania

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 8, 1-26

Abstract: Social media has triggered an increase in fake news spread about different aspects of modern lives, society, politics, societal changes, etc., and has also affected companies’ reputation and brands’ trust. Therefore, this paper is aimed at investigating why social media users share fake news about environmentally friendly brands. To examine social media users’ behavior towards environmentally friendly brands, a theoretical research model proposed and analyzed using structural equations modeling in SmartPLS on a convenience sample consisting of 922 questionnaires. Data was collected by means of a quantitative-based approach via a survey conducted among social media users from an emerging market. The results show that social media flow has a mediated impact on sharing fake news about environmentally friendly brands on social media. Considering the critical consequences of fake news, the paper argues that understanding the dissemination process of this type of bogus content on social media platforms has important theoretical and managerial implications. Understanding the psychological mechanisms that influence people’s behavior in sharing fake news about environmentally friendly brands on social networking sites (SNS) could help in better understanding the factors and the effects of this phenomenon. The originality of this research consists of proposing flow theory from positive psychology to be used as a theoretical framework to explain users’ behavior of sharing fake news about environmentally friendly brands on social media.

Keywords: fake news; social media platforms; social media flow; social media usage; flow theory; environmentally friendly brands; user behavior; online sharing news; online trust; structural equations modeling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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