Information-Sharing Behavior on WeChat Moments: The Role of Anonymity, Familiarity, and Intrinsic Motivation

"I Want to Hold an Umbrella Over You Because I Have Been in the Rain": Exploring Patient Influencers' Motivations to Share Eating Disorders Experiences from a Self-Determination Theory Perspective

Patients can become educator-influencers in promoting the public's understanding of health and illness; however, the underlying motivations driving their engagement in this role remain unclear. Drawing from the Self-Determination Theory, this study explores the motivations of patients-turned-influencers in sharing eating disorders (ED) experiences and information on Chinese social media. Through semi-structured interviews with 33 patient influencers, this study examines the motivations associated with three psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. In terms of autonomy, influencers shared their ED experiences as self-therapy, expression, and documentation of personal growth. Regarding competence, influencers felt that their medical training or personal experiences made them more knowledgeable about ED, and their communication skills and high self-esteem gave them more confidence and courage to share their ED experiences. Finally, in terms of relatedness, altruism, community building, and peer influence are the driving forces behind their sharing behaviors. With the rise of ED cases in China, misunderstandings about the condition remain prevalent. As the first study of ED social media influencers in a Chinese context, this research highlights the unique cultural and social factors influencing the motivations behind sharing ED-related experiences on social media. The theoretical and practical implications of the study are also discussed.

"Left on read" examining social media users' lurking behavior: an integration of anxiety and social media fatigue

Introduction

With the widespread use of social media, the behavior and mindset of users have been transformed, leading to a gradual increase in lurking users, which can impede the sustainable development of social media platforms. In this study, we aim to investigate the impact of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors on social media users' anxiety, social media fatigue, and lurking behavior.

Methodology

For the confirmation of these phenomena and to validate the theories, a structural equation model was constructed based on the SSO (Stressor-Strain-Outcome) theoretical framework. The model was then tested and validated with data from 836 valid online surveys. These data were analyzed using SPSS 27.0 and AMOS 24.0 software.

Results

The results indicate that intrinsic motivations (such as social comparison and privacy concerns) and extrinsic motivations (including information overload, functional overload, and social overload) are positively associated with users' lurking behavior through the mediating effects of social media fatigue and anxiety. Additionally, for the mediator variables, social media fatigue was found to be positively associated with anxiety.

Discussion

These findings underscore the importance of social media platforms considering both intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors to mitigate user anxiety and social media fatigue. By addressing these factors, platforms can foster user satisfaction and increase engagement, ultimately contributing to the sustainable development of social media platforms.

Association between WeChat use and mental health among middle-aged and older adults: a secondary data analysis of the 2020 China Family Panel Studies database

OBJECTIVE

This study focused on the association between WeChat use, the most popular social software in China, and the mental health of middle-aged and older adults.

DESIGN

Nationwide cross-sectional study.

SETTING

The China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) database.

PARTICIPANTS

The study sample included 11 127 middle-aged and elderly people aged 45 and above identified from the 2020 CFPS database.

RESULTS

WeChat usage was negatively associated with depression (OR: 0.782, p<0.01), as was the WeChat Moments sharing (OR: 0.846, p<0.01). 10.310% of the relationship between WeChat usage and depression came from the effects of interpersonal relationships (5.720%) and social trust (4.590%), with significant indirect effects (B=-0.028, p<0.01). Sixteen per cent of the relationship between WeChat Moments sharing and depression came from the effect of interpersonal relationships (6.800%) and social trust (9.200%), and the indirect effect was also significant (B=-0.032, p<0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

WeChat use may empower middle-aged and elderly to maintain close social relationships and trust contributing to their mental health.

The effect of fear and situational motivation on online information avoidance: The case of COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a plethora of online sources for information and news dissemination have emerged. Extant research suggests that very quickly, individuals become disinterested and begin avoiding the information. In this study, we investigate how an individual's fear and situational motivation impact Online Information Avoidance. Using the self-determination theory and information avoidance theories, we argue that fear and external regulation are associated with increased Online Information Avoidance. We also argue that intrinsic motivation and identified regulation are associated with a decrease in Online Information Avoidance. Our findings suggest that fear, intrinsic motivation, and external regulation drive Online Information Avoidance, where intrinsic motivation is the most significant driver. We also found that identified regulation is a crucial inhibitor of Online Information Avoidance. While focusing on COVID-19, our study contributes to the broader information systems research literature and specifically to the information avoidance literature during a pandemic or a prolonged crisis. Our study's findings will be useful for governments, health organizations, and communities that utilize online platforms, forums, and related outlets to reach larger audiences for disseminating pertinent information and recommendations during a crisis.

Exploring the use of WeChat for qualitative social research: The case of Italian digital diaspora in Shanghai

The widespread use of digital communication technologies has created new opportunities for social research. In this paper, we explore the limits and potentials of using messaging and social media apps as tools for qualitative research. Building upon our research on Italian migration to Shanghai, we discuss in detail the methodological choice of using WeChat for teamwork, remote sampling strategies, and conducting interviews. The paper highlights the benefits that researchers may have from employing the same technology that the studied community uses in their daily life as a research tool, and advocates for a flexible approach to research that adapts its tools and methods to the specific requirements and characteristics of the fieldwork. In our case, this strategy allowed us to emphasize that WeChat represents a digital migratory space which played a crucial role in understanding and making of the Italian digital diaspora in China.

Exploring hotspots and user information behaviour of WeChat official accounts: An empirical study based on stimulus–response model

The aim of this study was to investigate the hotspots of WeChat official accounts and the impact of their pushes on user information behaviour including reading rate, sharing rate, number of comments or collections and fan growth rate. Using nine official accounts provided by the Sootoo Network, this study collected data on more than 10,000 pushes released from January to December 2017. In this study, a second-order user information behaviour model using the collected data was constructed. Based on empirical research, a prediction model of user information behaviour was built using a backpropagation neural network and random forest algorithm, and two variable sets were used for training. Then, the effect of different prediction models was analysed to determine the main factors affecting user information behaviour. This study addresses gaps in the field of WeChat research, and the results are of great practical significance for the operators of WeChat official accounts: they can help them optimise operation effects and enhance the influence of official accounts.

The Relationship between Intimate Partner Violence and Online Help-Seeking: A Moderated Mediation Model of Emotion Dysregulation and Perceived Anonymity

During the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns and isolation have limited the availability of face-to-face support services for victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). Despite the growing need for online help in supporting IPV victims, far less is known about the underlying mechanisms between IPV and online help-seeking. We studied the mediating role of emotion dysregulation (ED) and the moderating role of perceived anonymity (PA) on the internet to explain IPV victims’ willingness of online help-seeking (WOHS). Through a PROCESS analysis of the questionnaire data (n = 510, 318 female, 192 male, M_age = 22.41 years), the results demonstrate that: (1) ED has been linked with the experience of IPV, and IPV significantly induces ED. (2) When IPV victims realize the symptoms of ED, they have a strong willingness to seek external intervention to support themselves. ED mediates the relationship between IPV and online help-seeking. (3) For youth growing up in the era of social networking sites (SNS), personal privacy protection is an important factor when seeking online help. The anonymity of the internet has a positive effect on victims who experience IPV and ED, and it increases WOHS. This study introduces a new perspective on the psychological mechanism behind IPV victims’ help-seeking behaviors, and it suggests that the improvement of anonymity in online support can be an effective strategy for assisting IPV victims.

The Impact of Positive Verbal Rewards on Organizational Citizenship Behavior-The Mediating Role of Psychological Ownership and Affective Commitment

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) can foster organizational competitiveness and survival especially, facing a rapidly changing environment. There are some empirical pieces of research that shed light on the effects of OCB on extrinsic rewards, since OCB, through performance appraisal, affects extrinsic rewards which will influence OCB as well. However, researchers have overlooked the reverse effect of extrinsic rewards (i.e., positive verbal rewards) on OCB. It is necessary to explore the mechanism between positive verbal rewards and OCB. This study integrated psychological ownership and affective commitment to form a structural model based on social exchange theory and cognitive evaluation theory. These results show that positive verbal rewards are positively correlated with psychological ownership, psychological ownership is positively correlated with affective commitment and OCB, and affective commitment is positively correlated with OCB. As refers to the mediating effects, psychological ownership fully mediates the relationship between positive verbal rewards and affective commitment. Furthermore, affective commitment plays a partial mediating role in the effect of psychological ownership on OCB. Accordingly, this psychological mechanism between positive verbal rewards and OCB reveals important theoretical and practical implications.

Predicting the Success of Internet Social Welfare Crowdfunding Based on Text Information

This study explored how the success of project crowdfunding can be predicted based on the texts of Internet social welfare crowdfunding projects. Through a calculation of the quantity of information and a mining of the sentimental value of the text, how the text information of the interconnected social welfare crowdfunding project affects the success of the project was studied. To this aim, a sentimental dictionary of Chinese Internet social welfare crowdfunding texts was constructed, and information entropy was used to calculate the quantity of information in the text. It was found that, compared with the information presented in the text, the fundraiser’s social network factors are key in improving the success of fundraising. The sentimental value of the text positively affects the success of fundraising, while the influence of the quantity of information is represented as an inverted, U-shaped relationship. The non-ideal R-squared indices reflected that the multiple linear regression models do not perform well regarding this prediction. Furthermore, this paper validated and analyzed the prediction efficiency of four machine-learning models, including a multiple regression model, a decision tree regression model, a random forest regression model, and an AdaBoost regression model, and the AdaBoost regressor showed the best efficiency, with an accuracy R2 of up to 97.7%. This study provides methods for the quantified processing of information contained in social welfare crowdfunding texts, as well as effective prediction on social welfare crowdfunding, and also seeks to raise the success rate of crowdfunding and thus features commercial and social value.

Medical Crowdfunding Campaign Sharing Behaviour on Mobile Social Media

This study explores factors influencing the sharing behaviour of medical crowdfunding campaigns on mobile social media regarding retweeter and retweeted text features from the social influence perspective and verifies the moderating effect of potential supporter donations. Two scenario-based surveys of medical crowdfunding users are conducted in China. The first (524 samples) and second (510 samples) surveys emphasize scenarios without and with retweeted text, respectively. These surveys are tested by PLS-SEM and suggest that the credibility of retweeters and the strength of their relationship with supporters can positively promote potential supporters' sharing behaviour, regardless of whether retweeters provide retweeted text. Three features of retweeted text significantly influence medical crowdfunding sharing behaviour. Retweeted text can promote sharing behaviour among individuals. With retweeted text available, if potential supporters donate before sharing the campaign, then the influences of retweeter and retweeted text features can be increased.

How Does Social Currency Influence Prosocial Behavior? The Role of Collective Self-Esteem and Communication Network Heterogeneity

The social currency, the existing potential resource in the social networks and communities of an individual, has become more significant in the era of information technology. Meanwhile, the rapid development of Internet service, especially its application on mobile devices, brings many new contents of prosocial behaviors (PBs), which benefits both individuals and communities. Specifically, social currency plays a positive role in promoting PB, forming positive personalities, promoting positive social adaptation, and contributing to human survival and social development. However, the theoretical research in this field still lags far behind the development of practice, and the research on the impact of social currency on PB remains exceedingly scarce. Grounded in the social exchange theory (SET), the present study collects a total of 497 WeChat user questionnaires, constructs a model for the influence mechanism of social currency on PB, and tests the hypothesis through hierarchical regression. According to the results obtained, it was found that the social currency is positively associated with PB, and users with a more social currency are more likely to act prosocially on their own. The PB of an individual is then influenced by the social currency generated through collective self-esteem (CS) so that the perception of CS can be considered as a mediating variable. Moreover, the communication network heterogeneity (CNH) moderates the above relationship, and the degree of heterogeneity will have different effects on the relationship of CS. The obtained conclusions enrich the previous theoretical results of PB and provided new insights for social managers to enhance the prosocial-related behaviors for the group, organization, and society.

WeChatting for Health: What Motivates Older Adult Engagement with Health Information

Although WeChat has become increasingly popular among Chinese elderly people as a tool to engage with health information, little research has examined their motivations for health purposes and their engagement with health information on the site. By applying the two-stage Use and gratification (U&G) approach, we first conducted in-depth interviews (n = 20) to explore older adults’ distinctive motives. Based on the 22 motives found in the qualitative research, we developed a questionnaire for an online survey (n = 690) to further investigate how these motives affect older adults’ engagement with health information on WeChat. As the result, six motive typologies were identified: information needs, social support, surveillance, social interaction, self-agency building, and technological convenience. Together, these six types of motivations jointly account for 59.9% of the variance in older adults’ engagement with health information (M = 2.71, SD = 0.79, adjusted R² = 0.59, p < 0.001). Social support and information needs were significant predictors, suggesting that the older WeChat users’ active engagement is driven by personal instrumental gratification. This study examines the explanation power of U&G theory in a health context, as well as provides the practical implication for leveraging mobile social media to improve older people’s healthcare management.

Users' Willingness to Share Health Information in a Social Question-and-Answer Community: Cross-sectional Survey in China

BACKGROUND

Social question-and-answer communities play an increasingly important role in the dissemination of health information. It is important to identify influencing factors of user willingness to share health information to improve public health literacy.

OBJECTIVE

This study explored influencing factors of social question-and-answer community users who share health information to provide reference for the construction of a high-quality health information sharing community.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted through snowball sampling of 185 participants who are Zhihu users in China. A structural equation analysis was used to verify the interaction and influence of the strength between variables in the model. Hierarchical regression was also used to test the mediating effect in the model.

RESULTS

Altruism (β=.264, P<.001), intrinsic reward (β=.260, P=.03), self-efficacy (β=.468, P<.001), and community influence (β=.277, P=.003) had a positive effect on users' willingness to share health information (WSHI). By contrast, extrinsic reward (β=-0.351, P<.001) had a negative effect. Self-efficacy also had a mediating effect (β=.147, 29.15%, 0.147/0.505) between community influence and WSHI.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest that users' WSHI is influenced by many factors including altruism, self-efficacy, community influence, and intrinsic reward. Improving the social atmosphere of the platform is an effective method of encouraging users to share health information.

Can Goal-Based Health Management Improve the Health Knowledge, Health Belief and Health Behavior in People at High Risk of Stroke? A Non-Randomized Controlled Trial

PURPOSE

To examine the effectiveness of goal-based health management on health knowledge, health belief and health behavior in people at high risk of stroke.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

This is a two-armed and non-randomized controlled trial from May 31, 2020 to December 31, 2020. Participants were arranged to receive regular health care (n=126) or goal-based health management (n=126). The generalized estimation equation was used to analyze the changes in the participants' health knowledge, health belief and health behavior at baseline (T0), 1-month (T1), 3-month (T3), and 6-month (T6).

RESULTS

A total of 243 participants completed the 6-month study, of which 123 were in the control group and 120 were in the intervention group. After receiving goal-based health management, participants' health behavior (β=27.154, p<0.001), health knowledge (β=10.504, p<0.001) and health belief (β=49.057, p<0.001) scores increased significantly.

CONCLUSION

Goal-based health management can effectively improve the health knowledge, health belief and health behavior of people at high risk of stroke. We recommend that nurses can provide goal-based health management for people at high risk of stroke with support from hospitals and family members of people at high risk of stroke.

Identifiability, Risk, and Information Credibility in Discussions on Moral/Ethical Violation Topics on Chinese Social Networking Sites

One heated argument in recent years concerns whether requiring real name supervision on social media will inhibit users’ participation in discoursing online speech. The current study explores the impact of identification, perceived anonymity, perceived risk, and information credibility on participating in discussions on moral/ethical violation events on social network sites (SNS) in China. In this study, we constructed a model based on the literature and tested it on a sample of 218 frequent SNS users. The results demonstrate the influence of identification and perception of anonymity: although the relationship between the two factors is negative, both are conducive to participation in discussion on moral/ethical violation topics, and information credibility also has a positive impact. The results confirmed the significance of risk perception on comments posted about moral/ethical violation. Our results have reference value for identity management and internet governance. Policies regarding users’ real names on the internet need to take into account the reliability of the identity authentication mechanism, as well as netizens’ perceptions of privacy about their identity and the necessity of guaranteeing content and information reliability online. We also offer some suggestions for future research, with a special emphasis on applicability to different cultures, contexts, and social networking sites.