Avoid or verify? How do social media users navigate cognitive conflict in health information on social media platforms?

Chengyi Le¹Zixin Wang^2*Jiahui Cheng³Ting Lu⁴

• ¹Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
• ²East China Jiaotong University, Nanchang, China
• ³Other
• ⁴Capital Normal University, Beijing, China

Under the background of the digital intelligence era, users easily access diverse health information with varying perspectives through multiple social media channels, often falling into a dilemma of informational cognitive conflict. However, there is still a lack of systematic research on the internal mechanisms and boundary conditions that drive users to adopt different information behavior strategies under cognitive conflict. Based on cognitive dissonance theory, this study explores the influence of users' cognitive conflict on different types of health information behavior and the underlying mechanisms. It further analyzes how health information with different characteristics can trigger information avoidance and information verification behaviors. In the first stage, a questionnaire survey was conducted and the hypotheses were tested using PLS-SEM. The results show that cognitive conflict positively influences users' health information avoidance behavior through perceived information fatigue, but its effect on information verification behavior is not significant. In the second stage, experimental studies were conducted using different scenarios to further reveal the interaction effects of information relevance and information credibility on users’ health information behaviors. The results indicate that when both information relevance and credibility are high, users are more likely to engage in active information verification. In contrast, low relevance or low credibility tends to lead to information avoidance. Perceived information curiosity and perceived information fatigue play significant mediating roles in this process. This study expands the scope of research on users' health information behaviors, deepens the understanding of cognitive dissonance theory in health information contexts, and provides theoretical support and practical guidance for the effective dissemination and utilization of health information. The research context may have certain limitations. Future studies could broaden sample sources and conduct empirical tests across different cultural contexts.