The longitudinal relationships between misinformation sharing, fear of missing out and rumination among earthquake survivors: a cross-lagged panel network analysis

The sharing of misinformation on social media has emerged as a significant problem in the internet era. The potential co-occurrence of psychological issues among social media users, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and ruminative symptoms, poses additional challenges for interventions. This study investigates the interactive and predictive relationships among PTSD, fear of missing out (FoMO), and ruminative symptoms in post-disaster contexts. This study employed cross-lagged panel network analysis to elucidate the relationships among these co-occurring symptoms in a sample of 331 Chinese Wenchuan earthquake survivors. The results indicate that PTSD, FoMO and rumination directly influence misinformation sharing behaviour. Specifically, the FoMO symptom, ‘I fear my friends have more rewarding experiences than me’ (FoMO2), was a major predictor of misinformation sharing behaviour. Furthermore, the PTSD symptom ‘hypervigilance’ and the ruminative symptom ‘brooding’ served as bridge nodes within the whole network. This study contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the interrelationships among these conditions over time, revealing the mechanisms underlying internet addiction and misinformation beliefs, thus offering potential treatment strategies. Developing intervention measures to target these core influencing factors would be a cost-effective approach to mitigating the dissemination of misinformation.