SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1567506
Willingness to Share Information on Social Media: A Systematic Literature Review (2020-2024)
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Communication, Putra Malaysia University, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
- 2Institute for Social Science Studies, Putra Malaysia University, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
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The rapid advancement of Web 2.0 technologies, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has fundamentally transformed information sharing behaviors on social media. This study systematically reviews 66 peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2020 and 2024, focusing on key research topics, theoretical frameworks, and methodologies used to examine information sharing willingness on social media. Following the PRISMA guidelines, articles were identified and analyzed using keyword matching, thematic categorization, and expert review. Our findings reveal four core research themes: general information sharing, health-related information sharing, false information dissemination, and crisis information sharing. These themes are examined through three primary theoretical perspectives: motivational-driven theories, cognitiveprocessing theories, and social-relational theories. Additionally, the study identifies key factors influencing information sharing willingness across motivational, cognitive, and social dimensions. Methodologically, survey-based studies dominate this field, with experimental designs providing supplementary insights. This review contributes to the literature by providing a holistic synthesis of the current research landscape, identifying gaps in knowledge, and proposing potential directions for social media platform operators and policymakers to consider. Future research directions are proposed to address unresolved challenges and advance the theoretical and methodological understanding of information sharing behavior in the digital era.
Keywords: Information sharing, Social Media, Systematic Literature Review, misinformation, health information 1.Introduction
Received: 12 Feb 2025; Accepted: 23 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cai, Kamarudin and Nujaimi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Syafila Kamarudin, Institute for Social Science Studies, Putra Malaysia University, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
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