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This study uses third-person effect theory to examine the mechanisms of public opinion about self-regulatory efforts to deal with COVID-19 vaccine-related misinformation on social media, focusing on the roles of social undesirability perceptions and misinformation beliefs.

A national survey of 600 US adults from the Qualtrics panel was conducted. The study examines how perceived social desirability and misinformation beliefs moderate the relationship between exposure to misinformation and behavioral responses.

The results show that the perceived disparity in misinformation exposure relates to third-person perception (TPP), which increases support for content moderation and intentions for corrective actions. Perceiving misinformation as socially undesirable strengthens the link between the exposure gap and TPP. Individual beliefs about misinformation are identified as a crucial moderator, reducing the TPP effect on those who have high misinformation beliefs, leading to less support for content moderation and corrective actions.

This research enhances understanding of TPP in the context of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation by highlighting how social undesirability perceptions and misinformation beliefs moderate this effect. It emphasizes the significance of personal misinformation beliefs in shaping attitudes toward content moderation and corrective actions.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-04-2024-0220

Drawing upon the knowledge sharing model, the purpose of this paper is to identify personal and environmental antecedents to information sharing on social networking sites (SNSs) and examines the interaction effects between the two factors.

Data were collected via online survey with college students. Hierarchical multiple regressions were performed to test hypotheses and examine research questions.

With regard to environmental factors, the more users perceive their audience to be a collection of weak ties, the more likely they are to share information on SNSs, independent of the size of their networks. Personal factors such as information self-efficacy, positive social outcome expectations, and sharing enjoyment feelings were found to be significant predictors of sharing activities. In addition, a significant interaction effect was found such that the effects of social outcome expectations on sharing activities on SNSs are manifested to a greater extent when users perceive their audience as weak ties rather than strong ties.

This study extends the knowledge sharing model literature by applying it to the SNS context and advances SNS research by taking into consideration both environmental factors and personal factors and their interactions.

In response to concerns regarding frequent uses of emotional appeals and endorsers in DTCA, this paper aims to investigate the relative effects of fear‐eliciting and non‐fear‐eliciting DTC ads on elaboration and attitude change regarding the drug and health issue, and evaluation of endorser credibility.

A between‐subject experiment was conducted with 96 students in a large state university. Fear appeals and endorser credibility were manipulated via stimulus ads. Participants' responses on elaboration, attitudes, and behavior intentions after ad exposure were compared between fear and non‐fear conditions. In addition, the directions of influence among these variables and endorser credibility were examined via path analyses.

Fear elicitation had little effect on the type of elaboration generated since the elaboration was dominated by message‐related (vs endorser‐related) thoughts. However, the fear‐eliciting ad affected brand‐related and health‐related outcomes differentially. It had positive influence on attitudes toward the health issue, but negative influence on ad attitudes. Furthermore, ad attitudes had little impact on brand attitudes or brand‐related behavior intentions when fear was elicited in the ad.

Considering a paucity of research on the effects of emotional appeals and endorsers in DTCA, the authors' findings provide important insights for researchers and practitioners about how a specific emotion elicited in the ad has differential impact on brand‐related and health‐related outcomes and how the effectiveness of emotional appeals and endorser credibility can be maximized.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that drive students to use Facebook for educational communication and explore the impact of Facebook use for educational communication on perceived academic achievement.

A survey was conducted through a self-administered questionnaire to collect data from student Facebook users at a large technology and engineering university in Malaysia. Partial least squares path modeling was used to test the hypotheses in the research model.

This empirical study showed that Facebook use in educational communication is determined by subjective norms and purposive value. Facebook use in educational communication positively affected perceived academic achievement.

The findings provide useful insight for higher institutions and educators regarding the potential academic effects of integrating Facebook into higher education learning. Moreover, this study provides insight into the factors that drive Facebook use in educational communication.

Prior studies have largely investigated the determinants and the effects of Facebook use among university students. However, little research has focused on educational communication phenomena. This study investigated determinants and academic achievement effect of Facebook use in educational communication among university students.