Trustworthiness matters: Effect of source credibility on sharing debunking information across different rumour types

The widespread dissemination of debunking information is an important way to mitigate the harm caused by rumours. This study investigated the influence of two key dimensions of source credibility—trustworthiness and expertise—on the sharing of debunking information. The model was tested using a dataset from Sina-Weibo. The dataset consists of 26,423 debunking posts, 326,346 reposts, and 4,761,358 historical posts. Trustworthiness had a significant positive effect on sharing, whereas expertise had a significant negative effect. In addition, both trustworthiness and expertise of the source can indirectly and positively affected sharing by positively influencing source influence. Third, the positive effect of trustworthiness was greater in wedge and wishful rumours than in dread rumours. The negative effect of expertise was attenuated by wishful rumours. These findings extend our understanding of the complex relationship between source credibility and debunking information sharing, and guide practitioners in developing strategies to disseminate debunking information.