The Trust-Building Process in the Social Media Environment of Rumour Spreading

Abstract

Given the negative effects on individuals and society caused by trust in social media rumours, this research focuses on the trust-building process related to social media rumours. Using a structural equation model to analyze the data of 234 journalism students, we investigated the trust-building process, including trust belief and trust action, related to social media rumours. We studied the associations of trust belief and trust action with self-efficacy, which is an important psychological factor, and the relationship of the two levels of trust with the expressive and consumptive use of social media rumours. The results suggest that self-efficacy has a positive effect on trust belief but a negative effect on trust action. The different levels of trust have different effects on the use of rumours. The study provides insights into the trust-building process in relation to social media rumours and empirical support for media literacy training and computer ethics education.