An Investigation of the Influencing Factors of Chinese WeChat Users’ Environmental Information-Sharing Behavior Based on an Integrated Model of UGT, NAM, and TPB

Abstract

Sustainable development is a common challenge for all. Under this background, how to promote public participation in environmental communication has become an important topic. The purpose of this study is to understand the motivating mechanism behind Chinese WeChat users’ environmental information-sharing behavior by taking China’s unique social and cultural background into account. A comprehensive theoretical model for this study is constructed based on the uses and gratification theory, the norm activation model, and the theory of planned behavior. Through an online survey, data were collected from 526 participants to test the research model. The research results show that Chinese WeChat users’ environmental information-sharing behavior is motivated by both egoistic factors (self-presentation, information seeking, and socializing) and altruistic factors (awareness of consequences and ascription of responsibility). During the behavioral decision-making process, these motivating factors impact people’s actual sharing behavior via their attitudes toward the behavior, subjective norms, personal norms, and behavioral intention in various patterns. The findings are discussed from an interdisciplinary perspective of media usage, prosocial behavior, and behavioral psychology. This article not only proposes a new conceptual framework to explain social media users’ behavior of sharing environmental information but also provides important theoretical and practical implications regarding motivating public participation in environmental communication on social media.

Understanding the Health Information Sharing Behavior of Social Media Users

“…Since WeChat has become the second most popular social media platform in the world, studying the health information sharing on WeChat opens a new window for researchers who are interested in social media in China or Asia. Although prior studies began evaluating knowledge sharing in online health communities (Yan et al, 2016;Deng & Liu, 2017), or exploring user behaviors of WeChat consumers (Gan, 2017;Chen, 2020), few studies have probed health information sharing through WeChat. Zhang et al (2017) claimed that they performed the first quantitative investigation of people's view on health information in WeChat.…”

Be Yourself: The Relative Importance of Personal and Social Norms for Adolescents’ Self-Presentation on Instagram

“…We conducted 27 semi-structured interviews with German Instagram users between May and June 2019. Although the concepts of personal and social norms are well defined in the literature and in various scales (e.g., Chen, 2020;Doran & Larsen, 2016;Geber et al, 2021;Lai et al, 2020;Rimal & Real, 2005), a qualitative research approach was deliberately chosen. This approach is well-suited for examining mindsets, opinions, and behaviors (Flick, 2018) because it is often difficult for adolescents to express themselves about complex and subconscious perceptions or to scale approval or rejection.…”

“…When studying the influence of personal norms on behavior, researchers have mainly relied on the Norm-Activation Model (NAM, Schwartz, 1977; e.g., Ho et al, 2016; Lai et al, 2020), the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB, Ajzen, 1991, e.g., Schaffner et al, 2017), or a combination of both (e.g., Bamberg et al, 2007; Chen, 2020). The NAM conceptualizes personal norms as a direct predictor of behavior.…”

“…Consequently, when presenting themselves on social media platforms, individuals “have the moral obligation to be who they claim to be” (Yang & Brown, 2016, p. 404). For example, a study by Chen (2020) showed that users’ motivation for self-presentation on social media platforms is positively correlated with their personal norms to share environment-related information. Moreover, a study by Chua and Chang (2016) on self-presentation on Instagram illustrated that adolescents perceive a gap between their personal beliefs and the perceived social norms of their friends.…”

Determinants of on-demand ridesharing: the role of awareness of environmental consequences

“…Those aware of the sharing economy are probably more likely to use its services (Ball us-Armet et al, 2014). Moreover, the positive influence of awareness of consequences is documented in many pro-environmental circumstances (Chen, 2020;Kochan et al, 2016). Further, Bamberg and M€ oser (2007) pointed out that awareness of the problem is a key notion in explaining the formation of the three TPB variables.…”