Factors Affecting Prosocial Sharing of Health-Related Information on Social Media during a Health Crisis: A Dual Exchanging-Protecting Model

During a health crisis, prosocial sharing of health-related information (HRI) on social media can help deliver early warnings about new diseases, raise social awareness, exchange support, and spread health policies. Current literature has mainly focused on the factors of general sharing of HRI under normal conditions but neglected those motivations under the health crisis context. This study aims to investigate factors that influence prosocial sharing of HRI on social media during a health crisis. To obtain the objective, this study proposes a dual exchanging-protecting model derived from the fear appeal model and social exchange theory. A partial least squares analysis, carried out on surveyed data of 326 participants, suggested that online users performed two steps of threat appraisal and coping appraisal when they share HRI on social media. Specifically, both health and information risks were found to have impacts on prosocial sharing via motivational factors. Additionally, the motivations of prosocial sharing include both protecting factors (i.e., sharing efficacy, response efficacy) and an exchanging factor (i.e., reciprocity expectation). Our findings offer several theoretical implications and practical contributions for health communicators.