Perceived bloggers’ competence as a moderator of the relationship between information quality, source credibility, and health information adoption in social media

Backgroud In the context of digital transformation, social media has become a key channel for the public to obtain health information, and bloggers play an important role in shaping public health behaviors. However, the internal mechanism of how PerceivedBloggers’ Competence (PBC) and information characteristics jointly affect Information Adoption (IA) has not been fully revealed. Aim This study integrates the Information Adoption Model (IAM) with Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) to examine the relationship between Perceived Bloggers’ Competence and Information Adoption, and to explore how Perceived Bloggers’ Competence moderates the impact of Information Quality (IQ) and Information Credibility (IC) on information adoption through Information Usefulness (IU). Method A total of 1219 participants (648 males and 571 females) were recruited using a cross-sectional online survey design. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS and AMOS. This study constructs a conceptual model with Information Usefulness as a mediator and perceived bloggers’ competence as a moderating variable and employs path analysis along with moderating effect tests to verify the hypotheses. Results In the study, Information Quality and Information Credibility had significantly positive effects on Information Usefulness, which in turn strongly predicted Information Adoption, also Perceived Bloggers’ Competence negatively moderates the relationship between information characteristics and adoption. Conclusion This study challenges the assumption that bloggers’ expertise necessarily promotes Information Adoption, also provides key insights for health communicators, showing that striking a balance between expertise and accessibility is essential for effective public health messaging on social media, exhibits an effect that can be called “competence discounting”.

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